Students from Punjab who go to study in Canada spend about Rs 68,000 crore in that country, nearly $8 billion, annually. That’s a recent estimate by Sikh Vox, a website on the Sikh diaspora. The estimate is based on the number of students studying in Canada and the average college fees plus living expenditure, etc. According to data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), a total of 226,450 visas were approved for Indian students in 2022. Of these, a significant portion, approximately 1.36 lakh students, hailed from Punjab, pursuing various courses with an average duration of two-to-three years, says the report by Sikh Vox. Current estimates from student visa processing agencies suggest that around 3.4 lakh Punjabi students are currently enrolled in various educational institutions across Canada.
But if you include students from other states of India who go to Canada for post-secondary education, the number could be near $20 billion. Such a huge amount of money pouring in every year from India underlines the importance of Canada-India ties. Rising consumer demand in India not only boosts the Indian economy but is now contributing to foreign economies too.
How Indians fund Canadian education system
College fees constitute a significant part of the total annual expenditure of Indian students in Canada, and the Indian money going into the education sector in Canada has made headlines in recent times. Indian students have even left behind the government in Canada in funding of the public education system. International students from India have outpaced the government of Ontario, a province in Canada, in funding public colleges, a recent report has highlighted.
Given that tuition fee for international students is something like three times what it is for domestic students (exact data is difficult to pin down because Statistics Canada chooses not to track tuition fees at the college level), that means that something like 76% of all tuition fees in the sector come from international students, says a recent report published by Higher Education Strategy Associates, a Toronto-based consulting firm that provides research, analysis and strategic advice related to higher education.
As the above graph shows, since a majority of these international students come from India, it turns out that Indian students not only contribute twice the amount of money to the college system, on aggregate, that Canadian students do, they also contribute slightly more than does the Government of Ontario.
These numbers could be shocking for many in Canada, the report says. “Numbers like these tend to induce shock. How can it possibly be that Indian students are paying more into the system than Queen’s Park [the seat of the Assembly of Ontario]? The answer is simply this: Ontario institutions, faced with deep cuts in income, have acted precisely the way the government asked them to — that is, by acting entrepreneurially and securing new forms of revenue. This isn’t a mistake: this is exactly what the Ontario government requires.”
In short, the Ontario government doesn’t have sufficient money to fund its educational institutions and it wants them to earn more from International students, and in the above example, the students from India.
1.6 lakh Indians who gave up citizenship between 2018 and 2023 opted for Canada; second to the US
Indian students not only contribute slightly more than does the Government of Ontario but they also contribute twice the amount of money to the college system, on aggregate, that Canadian students do, said the report.
A government analysis from March 2022, which mapped the period when Covid had disrupted International students’ enrolment in Canadian colleges, showed that International students contribute over $22.3 billion per year to the Canadian economy – greater than exports of auto parts, lumber or aircraft.
Why do Canadian colleges need more international students?
Since about 2000, the number of international students at the post-secondary level in Canada has risen dramatically, from just under 40,000 in the late 1990s to almost 420,000 in 2020-21, says the report by Higher Education Strategy Associates. This rise was gradual at first, then very rapid from 2009 onwards.
The report cites several reasons for this growth: international students bring diversity to classrooms across the country and (marginally) because their presence burnishes institutions’ standings in world rankings, which regard the presence of international students as an indicator of quality. However, the main reason is that international students pay much higher tuition fees than domestic students and are thus seen as a way to offset stagnant government funding. In 2021-22, international students made up 17.6% of all university enrolments and 22% of all college enrolments. Growth has been most rapid in Ontario’s college sector, where international student numbers roughly doubled between 2016-17 and 2019-20.
At the university level, international students are a bigger part of the student body in the Atlantic provinces than they are elsewhere; at the college level, it is the reverse, with international enrolments lower in the five eastern provinces but hugely important west of there, especially in Ontario, which accounts for about 70% of all international college students in Canada.
Rising consumer demand in India fuels rush to Canada
Better career opportunities and permanent residency that follows foreign education, especially in Canada, attract Indian students. But the recent rise in numbers of such students can be attributed to rising consumer demand and higher incomes in India as well as more awareness about foreign destinations due to social media.
Indian students opting for higher education abroad are rapidly increasing and their growth outpaced domestic student growth by more than six times in the previous three years to reach around 7,70,000, said a report by consulting firm RedSeer in 2019. The report estimated that the number was expected to grow to 1.8 million by 2024. Covid had disrupted the trend but it’s now coming back on track.
The significant increase in outflow of students over the recent years is driven by better educational quality and outcomes abroad; higher standards of living ; gaps in the Indian education system leading to supply-demand imbalance and upward income mobility of Indian households, said the report.
There has been a massive increase in incomes in India over the past two decades that has translated into growing spends on post-secondary education. Additionally, people are becoming more aware of the benefits of studying abroad and Indians have a rising diaspora in popular destination countries which is leading to more applications abroad and student outflows.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick‘s finance minister says the province recorded a surplus of $500.8 million for the fiscal year that ended in March.
Ernie Steeves says the amount — more than 10 times higher than the province’s original $40.3-million budget projection for the 2023-24 fiscal year — was largely the result of a strong economy and population growth.
The report of a big surplus comes as the province prepares for an election campaign, which will officially start on Thursday and end with a vote on Oct. 21.
Steeves says growth of the surplus was fed by revenue from the Harmonized Sales Tax and federal money, especially for health-care funding.
Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs has promised to reduce the HST by two percentage points to 13 per cent if the party is elected to govern next month.
Meanwhile, the province’s net debt, according to the audited consolidated financial statements, has dropped from $12.3 billion in 2022-23 to $11.8 billion in the most recent fiscal year.
Liberal critic René Legacy says having a stronger balance sheet does not eliminate issues in health care, housing and education.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says the government is making some changes to mortgage rules to help more Canadians to purchase their first home.
She says the changes will come into force in December and better reflect the housing market.
The price cap for insured mortgages will be boosted for the first time since 2012, moving to $1.5 million from $1 million, to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
On Aug. 1 eligibility for the 30-year amortization was changed to include first-time buyers purchasing a newly-built home.
Justice Minister Arif Virani is also releasing drafts for a bill of rights for renters as well as one for homebuyers, both of which the government promised five months ago.
Virani says the government intends to work with provinces to prevent practices like renovictions, where landowners evict tenants and make minimal renovations and then seek higher rents.
The government touts today’s announced measures as the “boldest mortgage reforms in decades,” and it comes after a year of criticism over high housing costs.
The Liberals have been slumping in the polls for months, including among younger adults who say not being able to afford a house is one of their key concerns.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales rose 1.4 per cent to $71 billion in July, helped by higher sales in the petroleum and coal and chemical product subsectors.
The increase followed a 1.7 per cent decrease in June.
The agency says sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector gained 6.7 per cent to total $8.6 billion in July as most refineries sold more, helped by higher prices and demand.
Chemical product sales rose 5.3 per cent to $5.6 billion in July, boosted by increased sales of pharmaceutical and medicine products.
Sales of wood products fell 4.8 per cent for the month to $2.9 billion, the lowest level since May 2023.
In constant dollar terms, overall manufacturing sales rose 0.9 per cent in July.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
