![\"Canada\u2019s](\"https:\/\/immigration.ca\/images\/Canada-US%20Border.jpg\" "\\"Americans")
<\/p>\nCanada\u2019s colleges and universities are seeing a sustained surge in interest from American students following Donald Trump\u2019s election victory.<\/p>\n
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What started as an overnight increase in website traffic the day after the Republican beat Hillary Clinton, has translated into a significant boost in applications from south of the border.<\/p>\n
Schools across the country are reporting major increases in application numbers as young Americans apparently look to escape the prospect of living under a Trump presidency.<\/p>\n
University of British Columbia figures show a 26 per cent increase in applications from Americans after a 100 per cent increase in website traffic.<\/p>\n
Read More<\/strong><\/p>\n Across in Toronto, applications have risen nearly 60 per cent from the U.S. and staff are expecting more as the January deadline approaches.<\/p>\n Montreal\u2019s McGill University has seen a 30 per cent rise, meanwhile, and a 16 per cent increase in applications from students of other nationalities.<\/p>\n This shows that not only are schools seeing increases from Americans, but from the whole international community, as students turn their attention away from the U.S. over fears about how they will be treated as an immigrant under Trump.<\/p>\n The U.S. traditionally dominates the market for international students, and will continue to do so, although it looks set to lose a major piece of the pie following Trump\u2019s election.<\/p>\n The perceptions of Canada and the U.S. could not be more different in the international community. While the U.S. was electing Trump on November 8, Canada has recently announced\u00a0sustained record immigration<\/a>\u00a0numbers and\u00a0tweaked its immigration system<\/a>\u00a0to help satisfy economic needs.<\/p>\n One of those tweaks will make it easier for international students to begin their working lives in Canada once they graduate, a policy change so timely in terms of what is happening in the U.S. that it appears to have been made in reaction to Trump\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n Obviously, that is not the case \u2013 Immigration Minister John McCallum has been hinting for months that international graduates are his\u00a0number one target<\/a>\u00a0as new permanent residents.<\/p>\n The carrot of being given a pathway to permanent residence after graduation gives Canada an overwhelmingly strong case for drawing away some of the more than a million international students attending U.S. schools in 2016.<\/p>\n It was widely reported on election night that the website of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada crashed as Americans looked for a way out from living under a Trump administration.<\/p>\n But there was also a surge in traffic to the websites of Canada\u2019s top universities, including Toronto and McGill. Given that most courses begin in September, the full picture may not emerge for some time, but there is certainly the feeling that schools here are in for a bigger slice of what is a lucrative industry.<\/p>\n International students pay up to two or three times the tuition fees of Canadian students, making them key contributors to the budgets of the top universities across the country.<\/p>\n One estimate suggested the U.S. international student population was worth $32 billion a year to its economy.<\/p>\n\n
\nInternational Students Under Express Entry<\/h3>\n