Australia, Canada and the UK all tighten the student route
The 2026 map for Indian students has shifted from ‘open doors’ to strategic selection, with caps, higher costs and dependent bans across the big three destinations.
The 2026 map for Indian students has shifted from "open doors" to strategic selection. Australia lifted its international-student cap to 295,000 for 2026 and kept its India-focused MATES scheme — 3,000 places a year for graduates to work without a sponsor — but moved India into its highest visa-risk tier and raised the Subclass 500 fee to AUD 2,000. Canada has scrapped the fast-track Student Direct Stream and now caps study permits, though master's and PhD students at public universities are exempt from 1 January 2026. The United Kingdom has barred most taught-postgraduate students from bringing dependants, and will cut its post-study Graduate visa to 18 months for anyone applying from January 2027.
As the Western doors narrow, one large cohort has long gone the other way — read The 15,000: India's medical students in Russia.
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