This year, Canadian universities are expecting to welcome more than 12,000 post-secondary students from India. This number is nearly four times the number of Indian students that attended Canadian schools in 2008.

Last year, nearly 700 Indian students attended the University of Alberta, a 311 percent increase since 2008. The University of Alberta's President, Indira Samarasekera, told CTV Canada AM that, "Indian students are looking for opportunities given that there are a large number of Indian students in the age range of 18 to 25. They are looking for places with both reputation and quality, but value for money. Canada is an extremely sweet spot when you combine all of those."

According to Samarasekera, less than ten percent of Indian students have the opportunity to study at home and many are turning to Canadian schools for their high quality and low cost education.

Some Indian students noted that an important factor in choosing to study in Canada was the diversity of the students. In addition to the low costs, Indian students are choosing to attend Canadian schools for the opportunity to mix with students from a wide variety of cultures.

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