An Update on the Current Status of Canadian Universities

It has been reported that students who were enrolled in University courses online are much higher in number than those who were attending classes in person even before COVID-19. Last year, an estimate of 1.6 billion students worldwide finished their last school year through online.

Canadian government has been working hard to make sure that all international students who were studying at a distance will still have access to the same opportunities as to those students who were studying in Canada. There are many factors that can disqualify an international student from obtaining their Post-Graduation Work Permit after graduation such as missing a term of school or taking too many online classes.

Due to the occurrence of the global pandemic, Canadian government allowed international students studying outside of Canada count their time towards their application for a Post-Graduate Work Permit. This applies to all international students who began their studies through Canada’s designated learning institution from a distance but only until at least in the Spring of 2021.

In some part of Canada, specifically in Ontario, a province-wide lockdown was implemented and began last December 26, 2020. This includes four universities that are situated in the province. Southern Ontario lockdown means most in-person activities such as in-person learning, non-administrative work and services won’t be able to resume on campus until January 25, 2021. Start of winter term in most universities in Ontario have already pushed back by a week to January 11, 2021 and opted to have a remote-learning model for the winter term.