Canada- the new hot destination for international students.

“The students are the best immigrants for any country.” Canada has finally accepted and now moving towards two-step immigration policy, like Australia and others have, that will bring international students who later on will apply for permanent residence and thereafter become Canadian citizens.

Canada plans to double the number of international students in the next 10 years in order to combat the labour shortage due to ageing population.

A recent government-commissioned report on Canada's international education strategy called boosting the number of full-time international students from about 239,000 last year to more than 450,000 by 2022 a "realistic goal." The report emphasized that Canada should focus on markets in China, India, Brazil, Vietnam, Mexico and countries in the Middle East and North Africa which carry a huge potential in terms of quality and quantity to send students to Canada. Even if students don't stay in Canada after their studies, they can cultivate commercial and political relationships between Canada and their home country thereby playing the roles of powerful ambassadors to market study opportunities in Canada for prospective students.

The Student Partners Program (SPP) commonly termed as Students Partnership Program by the students and study abroad consultants in India was implemented in partnership between the Canadian High Commission and the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) in the year 2009 and has been attracting a good number of students from all over India and has helped Canada emerge as a preferred destination for higher education for overseas students not only from India but from the entire globe.

Suneetha Qureshi, Director of International Office of Kampus Landing- Study Abroad Consultants with offices in India, USA & Canada is worried about the latest trend of rejection of study permit applications at the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi and says, “January visa approval success rate was high, suddenly it has dropped in September; few of our very good students with 7.0 band IELTS score and sound financial background have been rejected. We have got their GCMS reports and will file for January 2013 intakes.” But, Suneetha is overall optimistic that this is a temporary phase and January 2013 will be good for the students filing Canada study permits under Student Partners Program in Canadian High Commission in New Delhi.