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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

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