Hi EEBANKER,
I was talking about UK. Yes I have experience of around 5 years of living in UK. I'll second carl321. As far as quality of education is concerned, compared to Canada, UK has better universities with more opportunities. And I am in a position to say this because I have had the privilege of working in academia in both these countries. I cant say anything about US because I haven't been involved directly there. Although, generally speaking, US universities are considered the best in engineering and technology. But might add, I've also been involved with a couple of universities in Germany, and I must say their standards of education and research, in engineering and technology, are even better than UK. The major barrier there is language. PR wise, Canada is still easier, but the new entry system does create doubts, nevertheless, the post study open work permit is still a huge advantage compared to other countries. For UK, if you get admission and perform well at one of the top universities, especially the Golden Triangle, Manchester or Edinburgh, and perform well, you have a good chance of landing a decent job. For UK PR, it takes a long time to become eligible, so that's the real downside. However, once you do become eligible, you can get your PR processed in a single day. So PR wise, Canada is the safer option I would say.
Cost of living in UK depends on where you're living. I lived in London in UK, which I think is the most expensive city in the world. But there's a catch to it as well. If you live in one of the main cities, cost of living is high, but there are plenty of odd jobs available. On the other hand, if you live in one of the smaller cities, cost of living falls dramatically, but so do the prospects of getting a part time job while studying. Between Canada and UK, I think Canada is cheaper, but this is based on my experience of living in London in ON Canada and London in UK. A better comparison would be between London UK and Toronto Canada. I have no experience of actually living in Toronto.
