UAE students look to UK and Netherlands as Canada cuts visa numbers by 35%

Ottawa last month introduced two-year cap that will see 360,000 study permits issued in 2024

The University of Toronto's St George campus. Canada hosted more than 900,000 international students in 2023. Reuters

UAE students who had planned to study in Canada are reviewing their higher education options, after Ottawa cut its number of student visas by more than a third.

Canada said last month that it was setting an intake cap on international student permit applications for the next two years, to stabilise new growth.

For this year, this will result in approximately 360,000 approved study permits being issued – down 35 per cent on 2023's figure.

Canada, which hosted more than 900,000 international students in 2023, is one of the most popular destinations for higher education among students in the UAE.

Vandana Mahajan, founder of Futures Abroad, an education consultancy in the Emirates, said students were now considering alternative countries and back-up options.

“People are now looking at a Plan B, just in case. There is a lot of fear among families who have offers [from universities],” said Ms Mahajan.

“They are worried and still waiting to hear about the paperwork needed in Canada.”

Canada's visa changes for international students

1. Most students, especially those going for undergraduate studies, have to provide a provisional attestation letter. Details of the provisional attestation letter will be declared by the universities before the end of March.
2. Canada has set a cap on visas for international students. Those pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees, and elementary and secondary education will not be included in the cap. Current study permit-holders will not be affected.
3. While students earlier had to show about Dh27,000 ($7,350) as funds available for accommodation and living cost, now they will have to present the equivalent of Dh55,000.
4. Graduates of master’s degree programmes will soon be eligible to apply for a 3-year work permit. Under current criteria, the length of a post­-graduation work permit is based on the length of a person's study programme.

Ms Mahajan said the move was targeted at students heading to third-tier institutions using the country to emigrate, not study, and that students going to “reputable institutions” will not be affected.

“It's a positive thing but it's not perceived as such by the students and the parents,” she said.

“The cost of living [which students need to show for visa purposes] is being doubled because they want the students to feel comfortable and have the resources to get safe accommodation.

“I can confidently say that all students who are going to accredited reputable institutions will not be threatened by this.”

Student concerns

Rema Menon, director of Counselling Point Training and Development, an academic counselling centre, said: “Right now, everything is on hold.

“Even those students who've already got offers haven't been able to apply for study permits, because everything is in a state of flux.”

She said a student who had been accepted at a university and had a scholarship in hand could still have their visa rejected.

Many students are looking at alternatives, said Ms Menon.

“Some students are looking at options in the Netherlands, others in the UK or in the UAE,” she said.

Jeanette Jones, an Indian national living in Dubai, was concerned as her daughter had been accepted at six universities in Canada and had a scholarship offered to her by a university in Ontario, but had not applied for her visa yet.

“We never looked at other options in terms of countries. When this decision came, we were not prepared,” said Mrs Jones.

“We are concerned. The funds we're supposed to show has increased.

“We're trying frantically now to apply for universities in UK and in India. It is a bit of a concern that they announced it so late.”

A Sri Lankan pupil in Dubai, who has an offer to study business studies at an undergraduate level at University of Manitoba, said: “As soon as I heard about this news I panicked.

“It has been a concern because I was only looking at studying in Canada. Right now, we cannot get any exact information regarding what is going to happen.

“They say we will have to get some attestation from the province to process our study permit but I cannot find any proper information. It's a little distressing.

“Right now I'm on pause, I haven't started work on my study permit application.

“I will take some time until the end of March to decide whether to go ahead.”

Expert advice

Madhav Juneja, UAE country manager for Crimson Education, which assists students in gaining entry to universities, said historically students picked Canada as international students were welcome.

“It was a lot easier to be amalgamated into the workforce and apply for relevant documents to stay long term. Changes like this, what it signals to people, is that there is a degree of uncertainty and there could be further changes down the road,” said Mr Juneja.

“I think one of the core selling points or sort of attraction points of Canada was this welcoming open-arms policy for international students.

“We expect that to change where there won't be that sort of blind faith and commitment to Canada and the Canadian dream.”

His advice to students was to make sure they had a really well diversified list of universities from different countries with a range of ambitious and more realistic options.

Sanjeev Verma, chief executive of Dubai-based education consultancy Intelligent Partners, said the Canadian government's decision would face a lot of pushback from the universities who relied on revenue from international students.

“For most of the people going to Canada, one of the objectives was permanent residency. That was the end goal,” said Mr Verma.

“As the entire process is going to become more torturous with these new rules, the appeal of Canada is definitely going to come down – especially for the South Asians.”