The beginning of 2024 marked for many students the start of finding perfect universities to enrol into for their preferred courses. Students in Mumbai flocked all day to a study fair held in the city, enquiring about the colleges and it's related programmes.
Many of them aspire to study abroad and take admissions in the university for the academic year 2024 and the preparations have already begun in full swing. They'll have to submit their applications by September-October.
The study fair had universities from countries like Australia, Canada and New Zealand and saw hundreds of students from various age groups and courses enquiring about their choice of country and its education programme.
New Zealand a hit amongst students
“I am an architecture student and want to pursue a masters in this course in New Zealand. I am not very clear about my preferred choice of University right now but I have my eyes on University of Auckland, Lincoln University and Unitec Institute of Technology,” said Shivam Sharma, student at Rizvi college of architecture, Mumbai. Sharma added that University of Auckland also provides lucrative scholarships to Indian students so he really hopes to get into it.
New Zealand is also the preferred choice of Gautam Sinha who wants a career in IT. “New Zealand tops the list of my preferred countries for pursuing engineering,” Sinha said, adding that he is a student at Mumbai University.
Students not fazed with recent restrictions by Australian govt on visa
Another student, Mehak Kaushik from St.Xavier’s college, is an English honours student and is hoping to find a suitable course and university for herself in Australia. “I am still doing my research but I am very sure of the fact that I want to pursue higher studies in Australia,” she said.
On asking if she's worried about the recent visa restrictions imposed by the government of the Australia she said, “As far as I know, the visa restrictions only concern those who have problems in English language so I am not really worried about that because I also plan to settle there after my studies are completed.”
Australia in its bid to cut immigration has imposed several restrictions, including tightening the English language test and putting a limit on graduate visas.
Canada still in race
Students applying for Canada also didn't seemed much fazed about the ongoing India-Canada row. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged India of killing Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar and ever since then, tensions between the two countries have risen. India had also suspended visa services to Canada for one month.
“I have always wanted to study in Canada as many of my seniors are also there and I hope that I'll be able to get admission there,” said Muskan Sandhu, adding that although she's aware about the Canada-India situation, she knows that things are gradually getting better.
Several others, such as Nidhi Sahu and Ayushi Saraf of Ruia College are also not worried about studying in Canada and hope to pursue MBA and Economics degrees respectively.
Students at the fair mostly seeked guidance on scholarships, visa application process and the tedious task of applying at universities.
