A spouse asked whether her 30-year-old husband — a Merchant Navy officer with 8 years' experience — should pick a college PG diploma or a university master's for management studies, and whether a college choice risks refusal. The thread offered two views, with the majority leaning one way:
- Majority view: university + master's reads as the more genuine case. Members advised preferring a university over a college and a master's over a diploma from a visa-odds perspective. Their reasoning: for an older applicant with substantial experience, a degree program 'looks like a genuine case,' while one member characterized colleges as better suited to applicants under ~25. A supporting anecdote: a spouse admitted to a university MBA in Vancouver received a visa despite a 10-year study gap.
- Practical constraint: 1-year PG diplomas mostly live at colleges. The poster noted universities rarely offer 1-year PG diploma formats — so choosing 'university' effectively means committing to a longer master's program.
- Minority view: it doesn't matter much. One member disagreed, saying either a college or a university can work — reflecting that plenty of college applicants are approved and the whole file (SOP, funds, career logic) decides the outcome.
The synthesis: for a 30+ applicant with a long career, a university master's aligned with that career gives the stronger narrative, but a college program isn't automatically fatal if the rest of the file justifies it.