Indian students opt for Indian MBA degrees this year

While better-known Canadian universities like British Columbia and Toronto will still be attractive to Indian students, admissions to the smaller and lesser-known business schools may be affected due to larger geopolitical tensions

- BY GEORGE SKARIA

TIGHTER VISA RULES, political pressure on top US universities, and fewer scholarships under the Donald Trump administration have led many Indian students to prefer leading Indian B-schools over US ones. An indication of this is the reportedly lower applications for GMAT this year.

"Student applications for our MBA programme have been at an all-time high. And the conversion of shortlisted candidates to final admissions has been quite encouraging," says Professor Harvinder Singh, chairperson, admissions, IMT Ghaziabad.

The 2025 admissions to B-schools are ending. Most of the schools have finished their interview rounds of shortlisted candidates from the exams and will announce the final selected list over the next few weeks. A few like the Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai and the National Capital Region (NCR) have already announced the list of admitted students.

Political tensions between India and Canada have also impacted Indian student admissions to Canadian universities. Indian students who may have opted to apply to Canadian universities and B-schools like McGill, are opting to study in India because of the political tensions between India and Canada.

One estimate by an education consultant, who did not wish to be named, suggests that student applications from India to Canada are at a five-year low.