TORONTO CALLING

A THIRD CHEAPER THAN THEIR US COUNTERPARTS AND WITH A MUCH MORE FLEXIBLE WORK PERMIT PROGRAMME, CANADIAN COLLEGES ARE BECOMING THE NEW DESTINATION FOR INDIAN STUDENTS

- Indira Kannan in Toronto

Growing up in Talwandi Salem village of Punjab’s Jalandhar district, Aman­ preet Kaur, 20, was eager to learn about the work­ ings of the brain. Between attending school in nearby Nakodar, helping out at her family’s grocery store and flour mill, and devouring the Goosebumps books by R.L. Stine, the science stu­ dent would read up on social stigmas attached to mental health. After Class 12, Kaur didn’t think twice about heading to Canada for further studies, especially since her elder brother was already there. “Canada...that seemed an easy road to take,” Kaur says. “If you’re planning to study something in India, especially in the medical field, it takes a lot out of you. You have to clear the entrance examination, you have to pick a nice college that exposes you to a better programme of study and stuff… you see a lot of struggle and difficulty and then you just assume there’s no future after that, right?”

The post­secondary diploma course in mental health and addiction at Fleming College in the town of Peterborough, about 140 km northeast of Toronto, seemed like the perfect fit and so, two years ago, Kaur joined the steadily growing number of Indian stu­dents heading to Canada. Having graduated in May 2021, she is now working in a field that had always interested her, with dreams of studying further to become a psychiatrist.