印度學生轉向加拿大商學院

When Urvi Bhandare decided to leave her native Mumbai to study for an MBA overseas, the 23-year-old management consultant’s first instinct was to apply for one of the top US schools.

當烏爾維?班達裏(Urvi Bhandare)決定離開家鄉孟買、前往海外攻讀MBA的時候，這位23歲的管理顧問首先想到的是申請一所美國一流學院。

But Ms Bhandare was dissuaded from chasing her American dream by friends, who had done just that, only to return home after struggling to secure visa extensions or land a job. She turned instead to Canada, gaining a place on the MBA programme at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

但在朋友們的勸說下，班達裏不再追逐美國夢——這些朋友們去了美國攻讀MBA，結果畢業後很難獲得簽證延期或落實工作，只能回國。於是她轉向加拿大，獲得了多倫多大學(University of Toronto)羅特曼管理學院(Rotman School of Management) MBA課程的名額。

“Canada, being as multicultural as it is, seemed welcoming and I could really picture myself enjoying working in this country,” Ms Bhandare says.

班達裏表示：“多元文化的加拿大似乎歡迎外來者，我真的可以想象自己在這個國家心情舒暢地工作的情景。”

Top business schools worldwide say they prize Indian applicants because they tend to be of good quality. Governments value Indian students from an economic point of view because they are a valuable source of skilled labour. University data show that Indians, more than any other nationalities, remain to work after graduation in the countries where they study.

世界各地的一流商學院表示，它們重視印度申請者，因爲後者往往質素較高。各國政府從經濟立場出發，也重視印度學生，因爲他們是高技能勞動力的寶貴來源。大學數據顯示，在留學國畢業後留下來工作的印度人超過其他任何國籍的人士。

Now, however, schools in the US and the UK, formerly two of the biggest beneficiaries of the Indian diaspora, are finding themselves overlooked because hundreds of Indian students are choosing to study in Canada instead.

然而，曾經是印度人出國留學最大受益者的美英商學院發現自己被忽視了，因爲數以百計的印度學生選擇到加拿大學習。

Ms Bhandare chose her business school after President Donald Trump announced in 2015 his intention to run for US president, before he was nominated by the Republican party as its candidate. She feared his pledge to tighten immigration controls, including reforming the H-1B work visa for highly skilled foreign workers, would limit her options after graduation.

班達裏是在2015年唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)宣佈有意競選美國總統之後、他被共和黨提名爲總統候選人之前選擇商學院的。她擔心，特朗普關於收緊移民控制的承諾，包括改革面向高技能外國工人的H-1B工作簽證制度，將會限制她在畢業後的選擇。

Canada’s visa system allows MBA students to remain and work for up to three years after graduation whether or not they have a job at that time. The H-1B work visa in the US lasts for three years, but must be sponsored by an employer. President Trump has proposed raising the minimum wage companies must pay people with H-1B visas to encourage them to hire US citizens instead. The UK’s post-study work visa, which allowed students from outside the EU to stay to work for up to two years after graduation, was scrapped in 2012.

加拿大的簽證制度允許MBA學員在畢業後留下來至多工作3年，無論他們當時是否有工作。美國的H-1B工作簽證是3年有效期，但須由僱主出面申請。特朗普總統提議上調企業爲H-1B簽證受益人支付的最低工資門檻，以求鼓勵企業僱傭美國公民。英國的畢業後工作簽證制度（允許歐盟以外的學生畢業後留在英國至多工作兩年）在2012年被取消。

Canadian institutions still struggle with a lack of brand recognition. There are no Canadian business schools in the FT’s top 50 MBA ranking. Rotman is the highest listed at 65. Western University’s Ivey and Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business are at 94 and 100 respectively. Nine of the top 15 schools are in the US. But the US government’s toughened stance on immigration has changed the way Indian students feel about American schools, according to Matt Symonds, director of Fortuna Admissions, an MBA applicant adviser. Many of his Indian clients switched choices the day after the US presidential election.

加拿大學院仍在艱難應對品牌知名度欠缺的問題。在英國《金融時報》編制的排名前50的MBA榜單上，沒有一家加拿大商學院上榜。西安大略大學(University of Western Ontario)的毅偉商學院(Ivey School)和女王大學(Queen’s University)的史密斯商學院(Smith School of Business)分別排名94位和100位。在前15名商學院中，有9家是美國商學院。但商學院入學諮詢機構Fortuna Admissions的主管馬特?西蒙茲(Matt Symonds)表示，美國政府在移民問題上收緊後的立場改變了印度學生對美國商學院的感覺。他有許多印度客戶在美國大選次日改變了選擇。

Between January 2016 and the US election in November, 4 per cent of Indian students Mr Symonds advised were interested in Canadian business schools, chiefly Rotman, McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management in Montreal and University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. That proportion has since risen to 16 per cent.

從2016年1月到舉行美國大選的當年11月，西蒙茲諮詢的印度學生有4%對加拿大商學院感興趣，主要是羅特曼管理學院、蒙特利爾麥吉爾大學(McGill University)的達索特斯管理學院(Desautels Faculty of Management)以及不列顛哥倫比亞大學(University of British Columbia)的尚德商學院(Sauder School of Business)。自美國大選以來，該比例已升至16%。

Kunal Khosla has a bachelors degree in finance from Kelley Business School at Indiana University in the US, but has secured a place at Rotman for his MBA.

庫納勒?柯斯拉(Kunal Khosla)擁有美國印地安那大學凱萊商學院(Indiana University Kelley School of Business)的金融學學士學位，但他選擇在羅特曼管理學院攻讀MBA。

“The constant negative news with Donald Trump made me refrain from focusing on the US,” he says.

他說：“關於唐納德?特朗普持續不斷的負面新聞讓我不想關注美國。”

The Brexit vote in the UK has helped Canada’s business schools at their UK peers’ expense. The Graduate Management Admission Council, which runs the GMAT business school entrance exam, found Indians taking its test had been the most negatively influenced among overseas students by the UK’s vote to leave the EU.

英國退歐公投也對加拿大商學院有利，而它們的英國同行付出代價。商學院入學考試GMAT的主辦方管理學專業研究生委員會(Graduate Management Admission Council, GMAC)發現，參加GMAT考試的印度學生是最受英國退歐公投負面影響的海外學生羣體。

When asked about Brexit, 58 per cent of Indian test takers said it made them less likely to want to study in the UK compared with 49 per cent of those from Germany.

在被問及英國退歐的時候，58%的印度考生表示，這讓他們不那麼想要在英國學習，而有這種想法的德國考生比例是49%。

Higher education figures from the Canadian Bureau for International Education indicate that the country’s attraction among Indian students had been building long before either Brexit or President Trump’s election.

加拿大國際教育局(Canadian Bureau for International Education)的高等教育數據顯示，該國對印度學生的吸引力早在英國退歐或特朗普當選總統之前就已經在累積。

Indians overtook Nigerians as the fastest-growing overseas student group at Canadian universities in 2014, according to the CBIE. Last year saw a 28 per cent jump in the number of Indians arriving on Canadian campuses.

該局的數據顯示，2014年，印度人超過尼日利亞人，成爲加拿大大學增長最快的海外學生羣體。去年前往加拿大學校就讀的印度學生數量躍升28%。

At Toronto-based York University’s Schulich School of Business, about half the Indian-born members of the 2010 MBA cohort returned home after completing their degrees, but last year’s class all stayed to find work locally, according to Dezs? Horváth, the dean.

多倫多約克大學(York University)舒立克商學院(Schulich School of Business)的院長德佐?霍瓦斯(Dezs? Horváth)表示，在2010屆印度裔MBA學員中，大約一半人在完成學業後回國，但去年的印度裔畢業生全都留下來找工作。

“Everybody with an MBA can get a good salary when they graduate but they want interesting jobs in an attractive city,” Mr Horváth adds.

霍瓦斯補充稱：“每個擁有MBA學位的人在畢業後都能獲得不錯的薪水，但他們想要在一個具有吸引力的城市找到有意思的工作。”