Asian students mainly from India and China are pouring into Canadian educational institutions in record numbers triggering double-digit growth in the number of study permit holders to Canada.

According to government figures, there were 572, 415 study permit holders in Canada on December 31, 2018 – a 16% jump from the previous year.

India overtook China, with 172,625 study permit holders in the country, a 40% increase since 2017, compared to China’s 142,985 and 2% growth. The country was already on a strong growth trajectory for the past 4 years and had been growing much faster than China.

“The new numbers clearly demonstrate the attractiveness of Canada as a study destination,” said Clayton Purdy of the British Columbia-based Weal Careers Solutions.

“The Canadian institutions have been gearing up over the last few years to provide safe and diversified alternatives to traditional study destinations like the US and the UK,” he said.

“Its bearing fruit now and we expect the numbers to grow,” said Purdy, who also specializes in placing foreign students in about 15 American universities.

“We have agents across Asia but the most active markets are India and China for all of North America,” he said.

China and India accounted for more than double the number of students in Canada than all of the other top-10 countries put together.

Vietnam and Iran also registered impressive growth rates for Canada, at 45% and 47% respectively.

Indian media reported that a key factor driving Indian students to Canadian universities is the ability to access an open work permit once they graduate and Canada’s simplified pathways to both permanent residence and citizenship.

Other drivers that were mentioned included the quality of Canada’s universities, its multicultural, diverse population and the fact an international education is cheaper in Canada than the U.S. thanks to the weaker Canadian dollar.

The top 10 countries of origin for Canada in terms of foreign students are India, China, Korea, France, Vietnam, US, Brazil, Nigeria, Iran, and Japan.

Where are foreign students heading to Canada?