Tolu Sajobi Tolu is a statistician who is currently enrolled in a PhD program at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He has a Bachelor of Science degree (First Class Honours) in Statistics from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and a Masters degree from the University of Windsor, Canada. The Canadian Education System The Canadian education system is patterned similar to the United States educational system. In Canada, emphasis is placed on practical application of educational knowledge acquired. The learning style is designed to encourage both individual efforts and team work as opposed to the educational system in some Africa countries where the emphasis is on individual efforts. While Canadian graduate educational institutions welcome international students, there are still reservations regarding the quality of prior education obtained in other countries. Hence, the admission process is more selective for international students. Canada is home to about 90 universities that are distributed among the provinces of the country. There are about 21 universities in Ontario, 3 in Saskatchewan, 7 in Alberta, 4 in Manitoba, 11 in British Columbia, 4 in New Brunswick, 9 in Quebec, and 6 in Nova Scotia, 1 in Newfoundland, and so on. In choosing a course of study in Canada, it is necessary for prospective students to understand that the majority of Canadian universities admit international students directly to most post-graduate programs offered. However, there are a few exceptions. Degree programs in Medicine, Nursing, Law, and even Pharmacy require a previous bachelor’s degree in a relevant field before being admitted. This is simply due to the different styles of teaching and exposures in these areas of endeavors. Canadian universities offer diverse programs leading to a Masters degree (M.A, M.Eng, M.Sc, MPH, MBA, MPhil and so on) or Doctoral degree (PhD). Other courses offered might include inter-disciplinary programs within two or more departments leading to a Masters or PhD degree. Another option is a fast track PhD, where a student with Bachelors degree is admitted for a PhD program directly. Only few universities have this offering. In most cases, prospective PhD students are expected to finish a Masters degree before applying for a Doctoral program.
Change of Course Gaining admissions into a Canadian graduate school requires some strategic planning by prospective students. In the event that you are interested in applying to another program that is unrelated to your field of study at under-graduate level, the competitive nature of admissions into Canadian graduate schools reduces your chances significantly. In most cases, you would be required to undertake a degree in the desired field of study first. For example, consider an international student interested in a Masters program in Psychology but whose bachelor’s degree is in Philosophy. You stand a better chance of being admitted to a Philosophy program than a Psychology one. However, if such a student ends up enrolling in the Philosophy program, taking additional Psychology related courses would enhance the chances of gaining admissions into a Psychology program upon graduation.
University Ranking A good number of prospective students prefer to base their choice of universities on academic ranking. While there is no official ranking of Canadian universities within Canada, one or two Canada-based companies have ranked Canadian universities based on some criteria. You can check www.macleans.ca. However for African students interested in Canadian graduate schools, it should be noted that post-graduation job opportunities in Canada is not based on the university ranking but on your performance and academic profile. |
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