The United States is making every effort to reduce the waiting time for visa interview appointments in India as soon as possible, a State Department spokesperson said Wednesday. “Visa processing is recovering faster than projected and over the coming year, we expect to reach pre-pandemic processing levels,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference. The U.S. issued more student visas in the fiscal year 2022 than in any year since 2016, he said, adding that its embassy and consulates in India in particular broke their all-time record for the number of student visas issued in…

One of the major factors that students consider when researching higher education abroad is the cost of education. The rising cost of education, inflation, the falling value of the rupee, and the increase in interest rate as a result of repo rate hikes has further pushed students to look for smart ways to finance higher education abroad. One of the best options to save costs on financing abroad higher education is to make use of government loan schemes that offer the lowest interest rates and interest subsidies. Below is a list of government education loan programmes and interest subsidy schemes…

The Federal Court of Canada in the case of Jafari v. Canada [2022 FC 1761] refused to interfere with the decision of IRCC denying Study Permit to a 7-year-old and visitor visa to her mother from Iran primarily on the grounds of Funds and future prospects. Without commenting on the facts, I am reiterating two paragraphs of the judgment which are self-explanatory:    [1] This application for judicial review arises from the March 20, 2022 refusal (the “Decision”) of a visa officer (the “Officer”) to grant a study permit to a 7-year-old child, Lara Jafari (“Miss Jafari”). At the time…

(This letter is part of a series by The Indian Express where we bring to you the experiences of students at different foreign universities. From scholarships and loans to food and cultural experiences — students tell us how life is different in those countries and things they are learning other than academics) Being a small-town boy from Meerut (Uttar Pradesh), I always wondered what studying abroad would be like. I was pursuing political science at Delhi University and attended various seminars and decided to take the leap and apply for bachelors at the University of Chicago, Illinois. Eventually, I landed at the…

This week in a special seasonal episode of the show we travel to Toronto, Canada to meet with sector experts Higher Education Strategy Associates. Alex Usher and his team chat international students, student mental health, predictions for 2023 and the collapse of a university – and how to avoid it happening again both in Canada and in the UK. With Alex Usher, President at Higher Education Strategy Associates, Tiffany McLennon, Research Analyst at HESA, Jonathan McQuarrie, Manager Academic Planning at HESA, Mike Ratcliffe, academic registrar and sector historian and presented by Jim Dickinson, Associate Editor at Wonkhe. Read more Source

Immigrants coming to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador are more likely to stay there for the long haul due to the arrival of the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP), reveals Statistics Canada data. Read more: The AIP was launched as a permanent program in 2022 after years of success as a pilot prog4am.  Pilot program that became the AIP boosted Nova Scotia’s immigrant retention rate the most “Three years into the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program (AIPP), the one-year retention rate of skilled workers and skilled trades categories had risen substantially in all Atlantic provinces,” notes…

The relationship between India and Australia is at its pinnacle with the signing of the interim Free Trade Agreement between the Prime Ministers of both the countries earlier this month. As an extension of the agreement, India and Australia also signed a letter of intent to work towards a migration and mobility partnership agreement to benefit their students and professionals. There is also a special task force looking into the mutual recognition of educational qualifications, which is an important step forward given the large number of Indian students studying in Australia. The recent announcement of the ‘Maitri’ Scholars Program with…

For those who wish to study abroad, the Ministry of Education provides financial aid to Indian students for higher studies. To apply for these scholarships, aspirants can check the Ministry’s official website — education.gov.in. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment provides several scholarship programmes such as the National Overseas Scholarship Scheme for Scheduled Castes, denotified, nomadic and semi nomadic tribes, landless agricultural labourers and traditional artisans, Scheduled Castes and traditional artisans category. Scholarships are provided to candidates of the above-mentioned categories to help them obtain higher education viz., Masters’ degree or PhD courses…

Another month, another announcement of an Indian taking over a large corporation or university. Next year, Laxman Narasimhan will take over from Howard Schultz as the CEO of Starbucks. In November, Sunil Kumar was appointed as the first person of color to become president of Tufts University. In October, Naureen Hassan took over as President of UBS Americas. Earlier in July, Sowmyanarayan Sampath took over as the CEO of Verizon Business and Jayathi Murthy became the President of Oregon State University–the first woman of color to take this position. The success of Indian-origin leaders in Silicon Valley is well-documented by…