Canadian immigration needs to attract more Indian students
September 07 2009 by Matt Jones
Touhey: Canada immigration needs change
Canada is missing out on students from India and need to increase advertising spending to attract more Indians to improve long-term diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Professor Ryan M. Touhey has authored a study titled “A new direction for the Canada-India relationship.” In this study he reveals the international education industry is worth roughly $300 billion. He says Canada is receiving a considerably smaller portion of that market than other wealthy countries.
The UK receives 25,000 Indian students each year, the United States of America receives 80,000 and a further 40,000 study in Australia. A meagre 4,000 Indians move to Canada each year to study.
Only $50,000 was sent to the Canadian High Commission in Delhi in 2007/08 to advertise Canadian educational institutions.
“This is a pathetic figure” Touhey said.
Touhey explains that Canadian immigration need to learn from Australia, who drastically increased the number of Indian students studying there from 300 in 1994 to 40,000 in 2008. Australia achieved this using their ‘Brand Australia’ campaign which was lead by the Australia India Council.
The benefits of increasing the number of Indian students to Canada are long term and political, as well as short-term economical. Increasing student numbers via immigration will help build diplomatic ties between the two countries, which is of special interest to Canada who are looking to make deals with India’s nuclear industry.
Touhey said: ““One of the frequent criticisms of Canada in India is that it is unclear what Canada offers. [Indian graduates will] remember Canada fondly when they emerge in positions of influence and leadership.”
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