With a 50 per cent dip in the number of students from Punjab moving to Canada after the Class XII examination this year, most educational institutes across the state have reported significantly better enrolment in various courses in the new academic session.

As many as 3.19 lakh students from India had moved to Canada in 2023 as per the data of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Of these, nearly 1.8 lakh were Punjabi students.

However, this time, various immigration companies, IELTS centres and ticketing agencies, which had seen a big boom during the past six-seven years, are currently seeing a steep downfall in their business. The grim situation these businesses are facing has, however, brought boom time for colleges and universities in the state, which had been experiencing a lot of instability for the past few years. Dr RS Deol, Director, Lyallpur Khalsa College Technical Campus, said, “The imposition of curbs on immigration imposed by Canada has comes as a huge blessing for colleges in our region. Our admissions in all courses, including BCom, BCA and BBA, are complete. We have already given provisional admission to students in the management quota for BTech. Our specialised courses in data sciences, artificial intelligence and machine learning have been getting a good response. The online counselling being conducted by IK Gujral Punjab Technical University (IKGPTU) is also getting a good response this time.”

Aman Mittal, Vice-President of Lovely Professional University, said more stringent policies of the Canadian government were proving a boon for educational institutes in the region. “On our part, we too have been counselling students regarding far better placement prospects in India for them. Our courses like those in forensic sciences, aero-sciences and block chain have been in huge demand this year,” he added.