With more than 35% of the student permits in Canada held by Indian nationals, King’s University College, which is an affiliated institute of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, aims to capitalise on the growth of Indian students. In an interview with The FPJ, Dr. David C. Malloy, President of King's University College, and Dr. Tracy Cunningham, Director of Enrolment Services and Registrar, spoke with the newspaper on opportunities for Indian students, scholarships, fake applications, ChatGPT, and more. Excerpts from the interview:
How many Indian students are you expecting in the coming years?
David: We have 36 students from India and expect an increase of 10 students year on year from the country. We are going to make more efforts to increase our presence in India, talk to students, and explain to them how wonderful studying in Canada is.
What have been the most popular programmes among Indians?
Tracy: Most popular programmes probably in the last 15-20 years have been Business, we also have specialisation courses in Accounting, Finance, International Business, and Human Resources while also seeing an increased interest among Indian students enrolling in Psychology courses at the institute.
How do you help students avail work opportunities after a degree?
David: Most recently Amazon, and Volkswagen have set up shops in London, which is one of the fastest growing cities in Canada and just two hours away from Toronto. Once our students graduate and if they don't find a meaningful job, we invite them back to the college and provide 1 year of tuition for free to pursue courses again. This is to make our students ready for the job market.
Tracy: There are 4,000 jobs right now in professional positions across London, which are good for graduates who want to eventually apply for PR in Canada. Though most internships have catered towards Business programmes, there's also increased focus on Arts, Social Science courses since they didn’t offer such opportunities before but now students can explore their skills in these areas.
How does the international student award benefit Indian students?
David: One award is for students in the Bachelor of Management and Organisational Studies programme, so we provide students with a 26,000 dollar award and students coming from India can avail 6,500 dollars a year over four years. So if you are a student who is pursuing Sociology, Psychology, Economics, and so on, it's an award of 32,000 dollars which is 8,000 dollars per year. It’s a costly programme but we are trying to make it more accessible for Indian students.
Tracy: And in addition to the award, students can also receive scholarships as on top of the award they are also eligible to get additional scholarship money based on academic averages they are presenting at point of admission so there's a range of 2,500 - 5,000 additional dollars that can be added in year 1 followed by scholarships at slightly different values for year 2, 3, and 4.
In light of many students being deported over fake admissions, how can they be dealt with in Canada?
Tracy: We have had instances where Canadian Immigration authorities have shown us copies of letters that we never produced and that's something students need to be careful about. It's important that if you are working with an agent, it's a reputable one since they are speaking on your behalf. When they are working with the University directly, we can communicate with them through our admissions team, and assure validity of their courses. We are willing to do Zoom calls and any form of verification where they can deal with us one to one. I would tell families to do their research and be sure about who they trust with such a process.
Do you have an interest in building partnerships or branches in India?
David: It can be conceivable to have a permanent presence in India within the infrastructure of an Indian University. We have had very positive conversations about this idea as there's potential for STEM and Liberal Arts to go hand in glove to deal against challenges to the environment, democracy, and more which is why we would like to do partnerships that co-opt both the areas. So in conclusion we would like to see such a journey in India but will see how it goes.
Your thoughts on use of ChatGPT in Canadian universities?
David: Policy-wise we haven't implemented anything on the chatbot yet. My feeling is that banning ChatGPT is not the answer. We will have to control the tool and use it to our advantage. I fear that we are going to lose something as a function because of it but we could gain quite a bit as well.
Any tips for students on applying to Canadian universities?
Tracy: They should understand what's the right fit for them. We are fortunate to have quality UG education across the country so students will get a good education if they choose to come to Canada and get a bachelor's degree. But Canadian institutions are varied from each other based on different areas so if students are not happy being where they are they would not perform well which can be a concern. Students should be open-minded to various opportunities.
David: Students have a misconception that going to STEM will land them a job. All of the data in Canada shows that students can take courses in Sociology, Philosophy, Psychology, and more which are essential to build soft skills such as creativity, critical thinking, analytical thinking, and digital fluency that turn out to be important for employers. The data shows that no matter the degree they graduate from, they will get jobs and be on par with their STEM colleagues eventually or even surpass them because of the skill set they have.
How is the student housing crisis being dealt with by King’s University?
David: We have wonderful residences and many of our Indian students become resident assistants for the institution, helping them be involved in the community.
Tracy: We have acquired more spaces to help students avail accommodation. We know it can be difficult for them with the expenses but half of our Indian students stay on the campus. Students also have the option to look at more alternative options around the university for accommodation.
