Indian Students Hoping to Study Abroad in Canada Should Think Twice Before Taking Decision, Recalled Ambassador Advises

Indians hoping to study abroad in Canada should think twice as many students are falling prey to depression and suicide due to substandard colleges with no job prospects despite spending lakhs of rupees, India’s top ambassador there said.

Sanjay Verma, who is serving as India’s High Commissioner to Canada till 2022, said in a recent interview with PTI, “During my tenure in office, there was a period when at least two students’ bodies were sent to India in body bags on a weekly basis.” Rather than face his parents after the failure, they committed suicide.

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Verma returned to India earlier this month amid an ongoing diplomatic row with Canada over the Khalistani separatist issue. Canada had designated him and five other diplomats “persons of interest,” meaning they were to be questioned in an investigation into the 2023 killing of a Canadian citizen designated by India as a Khalistani terrorist.

Rather than subject themselves to diplomatic humiliation, India recalled Verma and the others on October 19, in what became the worst diplomatic row between the two countries. Verma said he would have given this advice to parents even if relations with Canada were good, adding that his heartfelt plea came from being a father himself.

“They went there to dream of a future, and were returning in bags of bodies,” he said in the interview, his first interview on camera since returning. Verma said parents should research colleges thoroughly before deciding, adding that unscrupulous agents are also responsible for the plight of students who end up in lesser-known colleges, which hold perhaps one class a week.

The students themselves live in cramped dormitories – sometimes sleeping eight to a room. He said this was particularly painful because these children were from “good families” and their parents and family members spent a lot of money on their education.

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“Since the classes are once a week, they will (only) study that much and their skill development will happen accordingly. After that, suppose a student completes higher education in engineering, I would assume he will get a job as an engineer. But you will see him driving a cab, or selling tea and samosas at some shop. Verma said that the actual situation at the ground level is quite disappointing. Asked if parents should think twice before sending them to study abroad in Canada, he said, “Absolutely.”

Canada and the United States are the two top destinations for Indians pursuing higher education, with many of them choosing the University of Toronto, McGill University, University of British Columbia or University of Alberta, etc. But the number of Indian students there every year is in the few hundred. The rest of the students go to lesser-known campuses.

As of today, 13,35,878 Indian students are pursuing higher studies abroad in 2024, according to data shared by the Indian government in Parliament in early August.