KOTA KINABALU: Malaysians have shown an upward trend in choosing Canada as their tertiary study destination, with more than 600 students enrolled in Canadian universities this year.
Douglas Bingeman, the Senior Trade Commissioner of the High Commission of Canada in Kuala Lumpur, said the main reason Malaysians choose to study in Canada was the affordable tuition fees.
In 2009, there were more than 178,000 international students from over 160 countries studying in Canada.
The most popular courses for students in Canada are engineering and science-related programmes, although some also opt for actuarial sciences, business and computer science programmes.
“Canada provides world class education for costs that are often lower than other countries, especially compared to the United Kingdom and the United States,” he said, adding that the average annual tuition fees was around US$13,000.
Bingeman said most universities in Canada are public universities and are partly funded by the government.
“There are over 90 publicly-funded universities and over 150 publicly-funded colleges,” he said in his speech at the Canadian Education Fair here yesterday.
A total of eight Canadian colleges and universities took part in the education fair.
Bingeman pointed out that more than 70,000 Malaysians have studied in Canada since the days of the Colombo Plan, many of them coming from East Malaysia. He added that Canada offers flexibility in employment and immigration for international students.
For instance, students are allowed to work up to 20 hours on or off-campus in Canada.
Canada also offers co-op programme whereby students are required to work for three to four semesters in their related field of study to gain work experience.
There are currently two Canadian pre-university programmes in Malaysia, offered at Taylor’s University College and Sunway University College.
Meanwhile, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Masidi Majun, who officiated at the education fair, said Sabahans should look beyond Australia and England to pursue their tertiary education.
He lauded Canadian universities for offering not only affordable education, but also a safe environment for students to grow and learn.