-TE-

To everyone, thankyou for responding. We all have some tough decisions to make, this one I will have to leave to my daughter to decide, we see her future in Canada, if she goes to Uni in England, she may not think the same. That will be very tough on us. 2 years in 5 is acheivable, if she comes to Canada during each term, difficult if she does not. Again, thanks.

Jerseygirl

IMO your daughter is more likely to stay in the country she attends uni in. She will have forged friendships and will more than likely have contact with prospective employers through the uni.

We moved from the UK to the US...after 7 years in the US my daughter decided to go to the University of Toronto. She made good friends and found she had more or less left her US life behind. She was approached by a head hunter before she graduated, landed a job and found herself a lovely Canadian guy...they are getting married in the spring.

Edit: Apart from the uni fees...consider air fares...often at the most expensive times of the year. If there is an emergency...you may want to jump on a plane straight away...again very expensive to fly at very short notice. We had to make 2 emergency visits to Toronto. If you have to transfer money to your daughter in the UK...consider the fees and fluctuating exchange rates. The exchange rate between the US and Canada from 2003 to 2008 really made a huge difference in cost.

ergyngfeld

i was in the same boat. i chose UK uni and i'm very glad. in my opinion, uni is quite wishy-washy in Canada, you waste the first year studying general stuff and then people seem to faff about for five years just getting a batchelors. loads of the people i'm working with, who went to uni in Canada and on paper at least have the same degree as me, are, to be brutally frank, useless. they just don't know what they need to know.
although a lot of that is because in Canada there is much more choice within the degree program in terms of what you study - most people just choose random courses from all over the place based on their interests, which is fun at the time but it makes the degree meaningless at the end. if you used your choices to keep your degree focused then you would still get a good degree at the end of it. (it's just that most people here don't seem to do that)

of course other people may totally disagree with me!

but re the visa, it wasn't an issue for me. i acquired my perm res visa around the time i started uni, and have still managed to spend the required time in Canada. very glad to be here in Canada now, but i'm glad i came here post-degree.

dbd33

A Canadian degree will be a four year one and that's important if the graduate intends to work for a Canadian firm as it's a stipulation for cross border working under NAFTA. If attending university in the UK with the intent of moving to Canada it would be prudent to find a four year course.

Alan2005

Hmm... Is that a four year course or four years of study? i.e. would a 3 year degree + masters count as four years for this NAFTA thing?

dbd33

I don't know but it's a bureaucratic thing so I suspect not.

Novocastrian

No there's not.

There is a residency requirement for OSAP (12 months I think) but none for domestic fees if you're a PR.

Jerseygirl

Thanks for putting me right...I thought you had to be a PR for say 6 months to qualify for domestic fees.

Novocastrian

Thank you for thanking me.

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London Mike

Yes you can swap and change around for the first two years, but for many a liberal arts environment is perfect while they decide what to choose/specialize in. And of course, you can specialize from year 3 or even earlier depending on the university, or whether you enroll in an honours program upfront (as some Univs offer). Those who want it can succeed in a Canadian university ... Or you can just piss about and emerge with a useless Bachelors. Then again, you can piss about and emerge with a useless Desmond from a UK university too. Same difference, just costs a lot more (now).

Novocastrian

Desmond? Richard, shirley?