The provincial government hopes to improve the reputation of Manitoba as a top-tier study abroad destination in Canada as well as among the prairie provinces. It is currently the fifth most popular Canadian province for overseas education.
study permits
International Students Discuss Studying Abroad During the COVID-19 Pandemic
International students in countries around the world are managing as best they can while they pursue their higher education overseas. In the attached video, five overseas students were asked about their university experiences in the age of COVID-19.
Canada Requires Pearson PTE Academic for non-SDS Study Permits
Source: Pearson PTE
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada accepts Pearson PTE Academic test results from Indian international students applying for study permits through the regular application process – also known as non-SDS (Student Direct Stream).
PTE Academic scores, along with TOEFL iBT and IELTS Academic are the only results that will be considered for applications outside of the Student Direct Stream. While this process is not the fast-tracked SDS that was recently introduced, approximately 46% of Indian students who chose to study in Canada in 2019 applied using this method.
Managing Director for Pearson Canada, Marlene Olsavsky, believes the PTE Academic test will be beneficial for Indian students hoping to further their education in Canada. “Test takers have a choice of more than 30 PTE centers currently open in India, including in Punjab, Gujarat and Hyderabad, all with required health and safety measures in place.”
Through PTE Academic, students receive the benefits of being able to schedule the time of their test online and typically have to wait just two days for their results.
Olsavsky states, “Once they get their PTE score, students are then able to send it to any number of universities they are interested in, unlike other English tests which limit the amount of institutions where a score can be sent.”
“We believe PTE Academic offers a huge advantage to test takers,” explains Olsavsky. “Our use of leading AI technology means colleges can trust that students’ English proficiency levels are scored accurately and with no bias. We also know students like the flexibility of booking and fast results we offer – making PTE Academic the increasingly popular English language test worldwide.”
PTE Academic is accepted by 194 education establishments in Canada and 90% of Canadian public universities. For more information, please visit their website: PearsonPTE.com
Removing The Barriers For International Students To Work and Settle In Canada
Source: Study International
Heading into 2019, Canada continues to witness record breaking numbers of international students applying to its colleges and universities.
Canada Sees 5.4% Increase in International Students in 2015
Source: Study International
In 2015, Canada increased the number of study permits issued to international students by 5.4%, according to official government data. In a report compiled by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, it was revealed that 125,783 new study permits were granted to international students last year. The Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration also showed that the number of foreign students applying for study permits in the same year had increased by 6.4 percent from the previous year to 187,968.
For the complete article, please visit Study International.
Canada Student Visa Policy Changes Worry NS Language Schools
A recent change to international student visa requirements has caused concern among Nova Scotia’s English language schools, reports CBC. Introduced in July, the new legislative changes require international students in Canada to obtain a second visa before moving from secondary to postsecondary school. “What happened before the changes is students could apply for language training and university training and receive one study permit to cover the whole of the time that they were going to be in Canada,” says Sheila Nunn, president of East Coast School of Languages in Halifax. “This gave them the confidence that they knew that they would go on to the university, they didn’t have to apply for any other paperwork.” Nunn adds that the new regulations might jeopardize pathways programs currently established at NS universities.
Canada Introduces New Visa Process for Conditional Admissions
Source: ICEF Monitor
The Canadian government has quietly introduced an important change to how it processes visas for students entering Canada to pursue conditional admissions or pathway programmes. Under the new processing policy, visa officers are instructed to issue a study permit – that is, a Canadian study visa – only for the period of the student’s prerequisite studies. After successfully concluding any such preparatory studies, the student will now be asked to apply for a further study permit to cover the period of their planned academic programme. This is a departure from the previous practice which saw visa officers issue a single study permit for the entire duration of both programmes.
For the complete article, please visit ICEF Monitor.
Canada Must Work Quickly to Address Barriers for International Students
Source: University Affairs via Academica
Canada needs to act fast in order to gain the economic benefits associated with international students, writes Kareem El-Assal for University Affairs. Some barriers currently in place in Canada may deter prospective international students and steer them in another country’s direction. Obstacles such as slow student visa processing times, inadequate settlement and integration services, and difficulty attaining permanent residency are among issues potentially hindering Canada’s ability to recruit international talent. While the government has implemented a number of strategies to combat these issues, El-Essal says that further immediate action is required to ensure the successful recruitment and retention of future skilled workers to Canada.
Canadian Government Signals Renewed Openness to International Students
Source: University Affairs
According to Amit Chakma, president of [CIEC Academic Member] Western University and chair of the federal government’s Advisory Panel on Canada’s International Education Strategy, the Canadian government has recently shown positive signs towards international students hoping to study in Canada. By reviewing the steps these students must take to achieve permanent residency, in addition to changes made to citizenship requirements, Canada aims to make it easier for these students to pursue an education and work in the country after graduating.
For the full article, please visit University Affairs.
International Students at Niagara Claim They Were Denied Work Permits for Taking Online Courses
Source: Globe & Mail via Academica
More than 50 Niagara College students have sought legal representation after they were denied Canadian work permits, allegedly because they took online courses as part of their program. Ravi Jain, an immigration lawyer representing the students, says 30 of his clients have already received rejections on their work permit applications since graduating. While international students have received work permits in the past after completing Niagara’s programs, this year they say they are being refused because Citizenship and Immigration Canada considers online courses to be “distance learning.”
International Permit Wait Times Creating “Competitive Disadvantage”
Source: Edmonton Journal via Academica
According to the Edmonton Journal, Alberta’s international students are facing wait times of up to three months and are consequently being kept from presenting their research at conferences around the world. These students currently cannot leave the country without renewing their Canadian permits and visas unless they risk significant delays upon re-entering the country. These delays can affect their standing in university programs where many have studied for several years. Marcella Cassiano, a third-year PhD student in sociology at the University of Alberta, said, “International graduate students are highly mobile people. We cannot afford to be grounded in Canada for five months waiting for document renewal and miss the opportunity to present our research in international conferences.”
Canada May Be Leaving Billions in Education Exports On the Table
Source: Globe & Mail via Academica
Canada is seventh on the list of destinations for international students but could be much higher, according to a Globe and Mail op-ed. The Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) projects that the number of students seeking education outside their home country will rise from 4.1 M in 2010 to 7.2 M by 2025. However, due in part to slow visa processing and lack of coordination, Canada could miss out. “[The challenge is] to develop a cohesive Canadian strategy to feature, highlight, promote our academic institutions, and that shouldn’t be just a city-specific or a provincial-specific strategy,” said Patricia McQuillan of Brand Matters Inc.
Lack of Resources and Coordination Contribute to Increased Processing Times for International Students
Source: Globe & Mail via Academica
According to a Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) report obtained by the Globe and Mail, insufficient resources and lack of coordination have contributed to a 30% increase in processing times for study permits and a doubling of the processing time for temporary resident visas. While the federal government has pledged to double the number of international students by 2022, it has not provided sufficient resources to do so, according to [CIEC Academic Member] Western University President Amit Chakma. Universities Canada President Paul Davidson said, “the question of visa processing times is a critical one in terms of attracting top students. If our competitors are able to turn around visas faster, all the marketing efforts, all the recruitment efforts, all the offers of scholarships fail.”
Changes to 485 visa make it easier for students to stay
Source: World News Australia
Under new rules, foreign students who graduate with an Australian bachelor’s degree, masters or doctorate can work for up to four years in Australia upon completion.
International students have greater chances to find employment under the federal government’s changes to the 485 Temporary Graduate visa.
Under the changes to visa subclass 485, which took effect on March 28, foreign students who graduated with an Australian bachelor’s degree, masters or doctorate, can obtain a visa to remain and work in Australia for between two and four years, depending on their degree — a significant increase on the previous limit of 18 months.
In an already competitive job market, the incentive is to lure high quality overseas students to study in Australia.
“Technically, it’s now much easier for international students to stay in Australia,” said Danny Ong, Multicultural Employment Consultant at Monash University. “But the main concern is that there is now a bigger group of international students competing for work opportunities”.
Remaining in Australia can be a gamble.
“This is a question that international students need to ask: it’s whether I can get a job,” Mr Ong said.
For international students, tuition fees could cost up to $30,000 per year, paid up-front, and application fees can cost almost $2,000.
“A lot of students find it very difficult to deal with parental expectations,” said Mr Ong. And this is affecting the quality of the international student experience.
“They tend to make an association between money and the quality of education. And that influences their interaction with the university,” he said.
Lyndal Partington, careers consultant at the University of NSW, says it is important to learn skills away from the classroom for a holistic education.
“It’s important to help them [international students] develop communication skills, team work skills — soft skills employers look for in graduates,” she said.
“One of the challenges is that they don’t have local work-experience and it’s hard to get their foot in the door. And another challenge is the difference in workplace culture between Australia and their home country,” said Ms Partington.
Under the 485 Temporary Graduate Visa, students can obtain a two-year work visa if they studied in Australia for at least 16 months and have completed either a bachelor’s degree or a masters by course work. Students who completed a masters by research can qualify for a three-year visa, while those who completed a doctorate get four years.
CBIE response to Citizenship & Immigration Canada: proposed changes to International Student Program, February 13, 2013.
Source: CBIE / Canadian Bureau for International Education
“…We believe that you will find our recommendations supportive of the objectives of the regulatory changes. Several suggest changes in language for purposes of clarity. Others are more substantive, for example, seeking to recognize that secondary school and pathways programs are increasingly important components of international education in Canada. As we noted in our letter last July in response to the notice of proposed changes, a third of international post-secondary students in CBIE’s 2009 national survey said that they had studied either at a Canadian secondary or language school prior to entering a Canadian college or university.
We appreciate CIC’s consultative approach over the past few months. Our Immigration Advisory Committee members took part in meetings in several provinces. CBIE and our partners in the Canadian Consortium for International Education Marketing (CCIEM) appreciated the opportunity to provide views during the meeting held last week in Ottawa.
Moreover the Consortium values our ongoing relationship with CIC. We believe that discussion of issues and possible solutions in our quarterly forum will be even more important once the regulations are finalized and signed into law, and when implementation takes centre stage.
As noted in the attached Comments and Recommendations document, we understand that a Working Group will be established to examine operationalization issues. We would be pleased to contribute our expertise to this effort.
In closing, CBIE values its partnership with CIC and looks forward to continued dialogue in support of our shared goals in international student policy and practice.”
New regulations proposed for student visas in Canada
Source: ICEF Monitor
As Canada rises up the ranks of leading destination countries for international students, its federal government is planning some important changes to the Canadian student visa system, with the goals of establishing improved protection for students, greater accountability in the visa system, and prevention of fraud.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has just announced that in January 2014, the following changes will take effect for student visas (also known within Canada as “Study Permits”):
- All Study Permit holders will be required to be enrolled and actively pursuing a course or programme of study at a designated education institution after arrival in Canada, in order to maintain legal status;
- Provincial/territorial governments will designate institutions that are eligible to receive international students, and only students admitted to those institutions will be able to secure a Study Permit;
- Designated institutions will have to report to provinces/territories and CIC on international student enrolment and good standing status;
- Only those students attending designated education institutions will be granted access to Work Permit programmes;
- Work Permit programmes will also only be accessible by full-time students who are enrolled in and actively pursuing an academic, professional or vocational programme leading to a degree, diploma, or certificate;
- Full-time international students with valid Study Permits will be allowed to work off-campus for a maximum of 20 hours per week without a Work Permit (that is, Off-Campus Work Permits would no longer be required for such students).
Those institutions that do wish to be designated as eligible to host international students will have to minimally comply with a set of common standards:
- Be recognised by the provincial/territorial government as being in good standing;
- Have adopted policies and put procedures in place that protect international students including a transparent tuition-fee refund policy made available to all incoming students;
- Have clear and well-communicated policies re: language proficiency and credential assessment and recognition for international students;
- Have sufficient administrative capacity to provide services that meet the unique needs of international students;
- Undertake promotional activities authorised by the province/territory and in line with the Education Canada brand;
- Publish a policy that outlines what it takes to be a student in good standing (and this must be consistent with provincial/territorial requirements);
- Maintain enrolment-reporting requirements and have a designated individual responsible for confirming the initial enrolment of a student with a Study Permit and reporting on the ongoing enrolment status of all international students with Study Permits at the institution.
Who is eligible?
There are a number of questions arising from the proposed CIC changes but a key one is which institutions will be designated as eligible to receive international students.
If provinces are designating eligible institutions, it seems likely that most will emphasise institutions that are directly under their jurisdiction — that is, those that are regulated in one way or another by provincial or territorial governments in Canada.
This tendency is reflected in the official CIC release that anticipates eligibility for the following categories of institution:
- Public post-secondary learning institutions recognised by the province (as well as private post-secondary learning institutions in Quebec that operate under the same rules as public ones there);
- Private post-secondary learning institutions recognised by the province but only when students are enrolled in a study programme that leads to a degree as authorised by the province;
- Learning institutions within a public school board or district that are funded by and accountable to the province;
- Independent or private learning institutions that deliver provincial curricula.
Canadian language institutes, which are not commonly regulated at the provincial level, do not appear on this list. This raises the question of how such programmes would be recognised under the new regulations and what the implications may be for students engaged in longer-term studies, or any language programme requiring a Work Permit, in 2014.
Gonzalo Peralta is the executive director of Languages Canada, the Canadian accrediting association for language institutes. In a recent discussion with ICEF Monitor, he noted:
“If all the stakeholders work together — governments, institutions, associations — we should see an outstanding environment for international students in Canada.
At the same time, we don’t want this new policy to have a negative impact on our sector. Language education is not recognised in the proposed regulations — the provinces have been asked to designate eligible institutions but they do not regulate language instruction — and our top priority is to have this recognition established before the regulations are implemented in January 2014.”
To that end, we have established cooperative agreements between Languages Canada and the federal government and also with provincial governments across the country. We are also participating fully in CIC’s consultative process for the new regulations.”
Consultation before implementation
CIC is now entering into a consultation process with all stakeholders who will be affected by the changes, including provincial/territorial governments and education associations. The intent of the consultations will be to fully communicate the extent and intended interpretation of the changes as well as to refine the regulations further as required.
While questions around the implementation of the proposed changes remain, CIC’s goal of increasing the integrity and accountability of Canada’s International Student Program is being supported by most stakeholders.
Languages Canada is entirely supportive of [the proposed changes] as they pertain to issues of quality assurance, protection of students, and prevention of fraud,” says Peralta. “The devil, as they say, is in the details.”