MS in Australia vs Canada — which is better for Indian students in 2026?

Why the cost gap is this wide

UNSW Sydney at about ₹1.21 crore and University of Melbourne at about ₹1.11 crore are the two most expensive programmes in our entire 14-programme verified set — more than Carnegie Mellon University's MS Computer Science, which costs about ₹1.02 crore. Australian international tuition is high and Sydney and Melbourne living costs are high alongside it.

University of Waterloo at about ₹48.0 lakh and University of Toronto at about ₹50.5 lakh sit near the bottom of the same set. For two countries that Indian students often mention in the same breath, that is a difference of roughly ₹73.3 lakh on the fees alone.

The visa gap points the same direction

Canada's Post-Graduation Work Permit gives eligible master's graduates up to 3 years of open work authorisation, and the route from there to permanent residence runs on a points system rather than a lottery.

Australia moved the other way in 2026: the Subclass 485 age cap dropped to 35, the English requirement rose to IELTS 6.5, and fees increased sharply. If you are relying on advice written before 2026 — or on a consultant repeating it — the picture you have of Australia is out of date.

One caveat in Australia's favour that our own data flags: our Australian salary bands may be optimistic. The sector-wide international postgraduate-coursework median in the 2024 QILT Graduate Outcomes International Report was A$70,000, and we could not retrieve the per-university breakdown. If the real figures are lower than our bands, Australia's payback is worse than shown here, not better.

Verify these numbers yourself

• Cost, admission-bar and salary-basis figures for all 14 verified programs: truthpathms.com/data (CC BY 4.0, each row carries its own sources and check date)
• Salary bands: Glassdoor / Indeed / PayScale / ZipRecruiter, accessed July 2026 — role-and-country bands, not per-university outcomes
• Payback method: total cost ÷ (typical starting salary − ₹8.0 lakh/year India baseline). Ignores loan interest, taxes and the risk of not landing the typical salary — disclosed, not hidden
• Visa: IRCC Post-Graduation Work Permit policy, canada.ca
• Visa: Australia Subclass 485, homeaffairs.gov.au (2026 rules)
• QILT Graduate Outcomes Survey — 2024 International Report (sector-wide postgraduate-coursework median)

Costs, salaries, and visa rules change - always confirm against the official program page before making a real decision. TruthPathMS aggregates and cites; it does not originate tuition, salary, or visa data.