Australia, UK, Canada experience decline in international students' interest

Thanks to the changing immigration policies in these countries, they are experiencing a decline in international students' interest, says research.

Study Abroad: As per a research shared by the study portals on LinkedIn, many international students are looking for options beyond Australia, UK, and Canada due to recent changes in their immigration policies.

The research paper is titled - Winners & Losers: An update on how domestic policies in the UK, Canada, and Australia have impacted student search behaviour.

Recently, the new Labour government in the UK said that they welcome international students including Indians. The universities in the UK welcomed this statement.

Also, the university sectors in these countries have raised this concern that the government's changing policies can result in declining international student enrollment which will drastically affect the finances of the universities.

While talking about expectations from new government in UK, Professor Manuel Barcia, Dean of Global Engagement at, the University of Leeds, said, “Based on the signals made by the incoming government prior to the election, we can reasonably speculate that the new government will work closely with universities in an effort to rectify years of neglect under previous administrations. The new Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, is already on record saying this much,” as reported by ICEF Monitor.

US, European countries' popularity rising

The study also shows that those countries which are gaining popularity among foreign students include - the USA and European countries including Germany and Italy. Students from Iran, South Asia and Nigeria prefer going to these countries for further studies.

Canada's government is also working to limit international students' immigration. Immigration Minister Marc Miller recently said in an interview that study visas should not be seen as a guarantee of future citizenship or future residency.

He said, “That should never be the promise. People should be coming here to educate themselves and perhaps go home and bring those skills back to their country That hasn't always been the recent case," as quoted by Economic Times.

Similarly, Australia also increased the financial burdens of international students and limited their work opportunities. In the UK also, the previous government reviewed the Graduate visa route that offers work-after-study options for international students. The speculation around whether it is going to stay or not resulted in a decline in international student enrolments.

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