Trump election sparks increased interest in Canadian universities

The number of Americans looking to study or work in Canada rose sharply after Donald Trump was elected as the next US president.

Data from Times Higher Education’s university jobs website show that views of the Canada listings page from US academics jumped 17-fold on the day of the election result (9 November) compared with the same day the week before (2 November).

The number of people in the US visiting THE’s article on the best universities in Canada, based on the World University Rankings, was also 17 times higher on the 9 November compared with 2 November.

While views of both pages dropped again the week after the election result, figures were still higher than typical levels; page views of jobs at Canadian universities were up 19 per cent on 16 November compared with 2 November, while views of the ranking of the best universities in Canada were up by 48 per cent.

The findings follow analysis from The Globe and Mail in Canada that also found that Mr Trump’s election win sparked a flurry of interest from American students in Canadian universities.

Ted Sargent, vice-president international at the University of Toronto, told the newspaper that the institution’s enrolment website received 10 times more traffic from computers in the US on the day after the election than on the day before.

He said the site received a typical 1,000 visits on 8 November, compared with 10,000 the next day.

Kim Bartlett, director of admissions at McGill University, also told the newspaper that the university received hundreds more applications from Americans on 15 November compared with the same day last year.

Meanwhile, Google searches in the US for “college Canada” and “university Canada” were searched more than twice as much on 9 November than on any other day in the past five years, it found.