In the recently concluded survey by MM Advisory Services across top schools in India, 45% of those who chose Canada as their place for undergraduate study cited “opportunities to work and stay during and after education” as their reason.

UK is still the overall #2 choice after US, and actually UK has been a popular destination for the longest time for the same reason. But with the tightening of the visa norms in the past few years in UK, those who were looking for work opportunities after study now see Canada as a strong option.

This is one of the key findings of the latest MM Advisory survey of top schools in India. Every year, MMA conducts a comprehensive, one-of-its kind survey among school counselors across the Top 100 schools in India. We will be releasing the full report in a few weeks.

In 2014, Canada scrapped the requirement of getting a work permit to work off-campus if you have a valid study permit and have been studying there for at least 6 months.

Some universities have formal Work Study programs which offer jobs on campus or with organizations that are affiliated with the university.

Contrast this with new regulations in UK that no longer allow international students to take jobs off-campus, or even apply for work permit after their studies are over.

Over the past 5 years, Canada has steadily grown as a top destination for students looking to study abroad. Last year, according to MM Advisory estimates, between 55,000-65,000 students went to Canada for undergraduate, post-graduate or PG Diploma studies.

That’s nearly 20% of the total number of students from India who went to study abroad in 2016. Considering that the US accounts for nearly 45% of all student volume from India, the numbers to Canada have grown significantly.

With enabling policies that encourage work opportunities during and after study, and with the US attractiveness as a destination declining, even though temporarily, Canada will only continue to consolidate its position as a preferred destination for Indian students over the next few years.

If you are looking to study in Canada and looking for advice on options, call us at +91 8527816109 or write to us at enquiry@mdotm.in.

Last year, UG numbers from India to US grew by an unprecedented 30%, to over 16,500 students.

Graduate numbers to US increased faster, by 39.3%. And the graduate numbers are 5 times bigger, so we are not saying that the undergraduate market is going to be as significant as post-graduate anytime soon.

But the spike in UG has never been this high – and the US numbers point to a changing trend that we have been talking about in the past year or so.

Furthermore, ever since US started collating international student market data from over 50 years ago, the spike in student traffic from India has been the highest ever. In 2015, 29.4% more students were from India compared to 2014.

The international student numbers from India was almost 133,000 last year. That’s 13.6% of the total US market.

This spike in India numbers is a key factor that pushed overall US growth rate past the 10% mark after a very long time.