In light of re­cent travel ad­vi­sories is­sued by the In­dian gov­ern­ment for its cit­i­zens and stu­dents in Canada, promi­nent Cana­dian uni­ver­si­ties are tak­ing steps to re­as­sure and sup­port their In­dian stu­dent com­mu­ni­ties. As re­la­tions be­tween In­dia and Canada de­te­ri­o­rate, stu­dents and par­ents are in a bit of a dilemma. Is Canada safe for In­dian stu­dents? WSN re­ports.

The Uni­ver­sity of Al­berta, the Uni­ver­sity of British Co­lum­bia (UBC), and the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto have is­sued heart­felt mes­sages of sup­port, em­pha­siz­ing the well-be­ing and safety of their stu­dents. The Uni­ver­sity of Al­ber­ta’s ad­vi­sory, signed by Cen Huang and Rav­ina Sanghera-Gre­wal, stated that the in­sti­tu­tion is mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion closely and that In­dian stu­dents are “wel­come and sup­ported.” They fur­ther listed var­i­ous sup­port ser­vices avail­able, in­clud­ing coun­sel­ing and ac­com­mo­da­tions.

Speak­ing to WSN, a Uni­ver­sity of Al­berta stu­dent said, “The stu­dents are not wor­ried, things are nor­mal, it’s just their par­ents back home who are get­ting a lit­tle bit trapped in the vi­cious cir­cle of neg­a­tive news.”

Sig­nif­i­cantly, a stu­dent leader of the Uni­ver­sity of Al­berta said, “We want to re­as­sure In­dian stu­dents that they should feel safe and sup­ported, ir­re­spec­tive of their po­lit­i­cal views.”

The Uni­ver­sity of Al­berta has of­fered a range of ser­vices to stu­dents in­clud­ing, The Well­ness Sup­ports So­cial Work­ers, Stu­dent Ser­vice Cen­tre,  Coun­selling and Clin­i­cal Ser­vices,  Grad­u­ate Stu­dent As­sis­tance Pro­gram, In­ter­faith Chap­lains’ As­so­ci­a­tion, and Stu­dent Ac­com­mo­da­tions.

Sim­i­larly, the Uni­ver­sity of British Columbi­a’s ad­vi­sory, from the RHL Of­fice, ex­pressed con­cern about the well-be­ing and aca­d­e­mic suc­cess of their In­dian stu­dents. They of­fered re­sources for health and well-be­ing, as well as con­tacts for in­ter­na­tional stu­dent sta­tus in­quiries and aca­d­e­mic sup­port.

In an at­tempt to al­le­vi­ate fears, Canada’s biggest uni­ver­sity, the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto, which has more than 2000 In­dian stu­dents has re­leased a state­ment ex­tend­ing sup­port to all In­dian stu­dents en­rolled in the uni­ver­sity.

“The stu­dents are not wor­ried, things are nor­mal, it’s just their par­ents back home who are get­ting a lit­tle bit trapped in the vi­cious cir­cle of neg­a­tive news.”

These moves by the uni­ver­si­ties come amidst spec­u­la­tions that the In­dian gov­ern­men­t’s ad­vi­sory is more in­tended to over­awe and in­tim­i­date stu­dents and their par­ents rather than ad­dress gen­uine con­cerns. The di­rect out­reach by these es­teemed in­sti­tu­tions show­cases their com­mit­ment to in­ter­na­tional stu­dents, es­pe­cially dur­ing un­cer­tain times.