Sign In
Learn bits
World Affairs
Mahesh

04/02/24 06:56 AM IST

Why are countries revising rules for foreign students?

In News
  • Countries such as Canada and the U.K. tightening rules to seek admissions to universities.
New Rules
  • Following the political turmoil between India and Canada, the Canadian government in December 2023 issued revised requirements that it said are ‘to better protect international students.’
  • The foremost of these was to upwardly revise the Guaranteed Investment Certificate (GIC) amount from 10,000 Canadian dollars, which amounts to ₹6.15 lakh, to over double at 20,635 Canadian dollars, close to ₹12.7 lakh.
  • In another instance, the U.K. announced that come 2024, international students will be restricted from bringing in dependant family with them as they pursue their studies.
  • Countries such as Germany and Australia too have gradually increased the GIC amount by approximately 10% annually.
  • As on May 2023, the amount required to apply for a German visa is 11,208 euros which is ₹10 lakh, up from the earlier cap of 10,000 euros
  • Canada had earlier kept a low GIC threshold to attract students, but the government realised that this was not enough to keep up with rising housing costs, inflation.
  • While other countries like Germany and Australia gradually increased the amount by 10% year-on-year, the Canadian jump of 100% came as a shocker because the hike occurred in one go.
Which students hit most?
  • Canada has said that it is restricting the total number of study permits or student visas it plans to issue to 3.6 lakh (earlier this was nearly four lakh).
  • India alone used to send up to 1.4 lakh students to Canada, approximately 80% percent of whom went to study diploma level courses there.
  • Earlier, aspirants looking to migrate to Canada would take any diploma as the ‘study abroad’ option, essentially as a passport to migrate to the country in poorly equipped educational institutions, while a spouse visa work permit would allow their spouses to work while the aspirant studied.
  • People would take on hefty loans to fuel this move. Now Canada has stated that while they will issue a spouse visa, the spouse will not have a work permit
  • While Canada aims to rein in its burgeoning ‘diploma mills’ problem, it has eased norms for masters program students to come in.
  • Masters students can apply for a three-year work permit after their course is complete. However, the stricter guidelines have put those who want to seek a Bachelors’ degree in Canada in the lurch.
Other foreign countries rules
  • UpGrad Abroad analysed data of 25,000 aspirational students who showed interest in studying abroad.
  • While 18% of this pool was interested in studying in Canada during the data collected between January to July last year, this demand dropped by half to 9.3%, in the data analysed between July and December, last year.
  • On the contrary, a destination like Germany, which had initially been in demand with nearly 17% students, is now attracting demand from 32% students.
  • Apart from Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the Netherlands and Finland.
  • Other newer destinations like Taiwan and Israel are also emerging in the list of potential study abroad destinations as they want to attract Indian talent to their countries.
Source- The Hindu

More Related Current Affairs View All

18 Nov

AFSPA in Manipur

'The Manipur government has formally requested the Centre to reconsider and revoke the reimposition of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in six police station areas of

Read More

18 Nov

BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel four-wheelers

'With high levels of pollution in Delhi and smog blanketing the city, the Delhi government has introduced measures to improve the air quality.' The Graded Response Action Plan (

Read More

18 Nov

India’s first long-range hypersonic missile

'The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)  conducted a successful flight test of long range hypersonic missile from the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odish

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps