NEW DELHI: The yr 2023 not solely witnessed a pointy dip in India-Canada diplomatic ties but additionally noticed the bottom variety of aspirants for graduate administration schooling (GME) travelling to the north American nation, clocking a five-year low. Canada is the fourth most popular vacation spot for Indian college students on the lookout for an worldwide MBA diploma.
According to consultants, Indians are even shying away from change programmes in Canada, primarily as a result of lack of job alternatives, and financial scenario there.However, Prof Himanshu Rai, director IIM, Indore mentioned it is untimely to make a confirmatory assertion on any of the explanations.

The slide began in 2020 – the Covid yr recording a decline from 14% to 11% – and it by no means recovered thereafter with the most important droop recorded in 2023 (down from 10% to six%). In distinction, locations just like the US, central and south Asia, western Europe, east and southeast Asia, and Australia, which additionally bought affected throughout Covid are on the restoration path, as per the most recent annual “Prospective Students Survey 2024 Report” of Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), completely accessed by the TOI.
As per QS Global MBA Rankings 2024, there are six B-schools from Canada which determine within the prime 100, and there are 4 B-schools talked about within the Financial Times Business college rankings (MBA 2024).
As per the research, as in comparison with 2019, there was an eight-percentage level drop in candidate desire to review in Canada and an eight-point enhance in Indian candidates’ desire to review inside central and south Asia.
The report acknowledged, “Given the survey was fielded throughout calendar year 2023, it is likely the challenges in diplomatic relations between India and Canada contributed to the most recent dip, though the year-over-year change is part of a longer decline since 2019.”
As curiosity of MBA aspirants in Canada wanes, Vaibhav Gupta, founder and CMO, iSchoolConnect, sees the current diplomatic stress, excessive lodging value, financial turmoil with a risky job market, and province-wise capping on worldwide college students “becoming deterring factors.” In Canada, price of residing has gone up and financial situations aren’t nice, and employment has gone down, added Gupta.
Another side the report touched upon is the rising curiosity in learning nearer to dwelling, because it acknowledged, “Candidates from India now have greater interest in studying in the country and within the region, with about one-third citing that they like being closer to home.”
This can also be in sync with the discovering that since 2019, the share of candidates with plans to use outdoors their international locations of citizenship dropped from 72% to 67%. Moreover, home purposes inside India grew considerably from 41% in 2022 to 53% in 2023.
The report sees this as an end result of elevated “educational and economic opportunities” within the subcontinent, as Indians pursuing a world GME in central and south Asia elevated from 18% in 2019 to 26% in 2023, with no dip even throughout Covid.
The US stays the highest vacation spot for candidates globally and it was 38% of Indian candidates most popular vacation spot, as Gupta says, “it has a big appetite with 4,000 plus universities”. Central and south Asia are the second most popular vacation spot with 26%, adopted by western Europe for twenty-four% Indian aspirants.