Pursuing Higher Education Overseas is a dream for many students. Students work hard to get an admission into the college or university they have chosen abroad for their higher education. However, owing to the pandemic situation caused by the Covid-19, the dreams and aspirations of many students planning to study abroad have been shattered. With lockdown imposed across most countries, the admissions to most of these international education centers have been stalled. Overseas flights have also been grounded as a result; students have to bear a lot of loss due to this circumstance.
With major international higher education locations like USA, China, Italy, Spain, Russia and Germany being heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, the main question that arises now is Will it still be Good to Study Abroad? Questions have been raised by many of the students who were to start their courses or who have returned to their countries and have to go and continue their education after the lockdown.
While India is a land of rich culture, budding technology and great educational institutes, there is no doubt that international colleges provide great exposure to the students. Hence, more than 90 percent students who have returned to their countries due to the pandemic affect are willing to head back and complete their education. It has also been estimated that more than 75 percent of the students have contacted their international education service providers in order to start their education abroad post-pandemic. Adding to this, 16 percent of the students have decided to start their higher education by next summer. Among all these students most preferred foreign study destinations are Australia, Germany, France and Canada.
However, there are still a number of students who have delayed their decision of going abroad to pursue their higher education, regarding their health safety and the pandemic situation caused in various countries. But to avoid the health threat of the international students that has been caused due to the present scenario, many international colleges and universities have taken certain decisions and those will be brought into action when they re-open the colleges and universities.
Some of those important strategies developed by the colleges and universities abroad are mentioned below –
- Post pandemic many colleges and universities abroad have decided to decrease the number of on-campus activities and encourage virtual events. This is to avoid the gathering of many students on the campus and make them stay safe away from the crowd.
- The international colleges and universities overseas have restricted the number of admissions of international students. They have limited the course applications and immigration services for some period until the pandemic situations completely end.
- The eligibility criteria’s have been increased and this might be a disadvantage to some part of the students as they may face difficulty in cracking those criteria’s and due to which they might lose their admission in an international college or university.
Universities and Colleges abroad have started focusing on the development of their health services available for the students in the campus so that the international students can feel safe in their institution while pursuing his/her higher education. Though it may take some time to re-establish a strong international education system across the countries as many students are still under confusion whether to choose an abroad study destination or not because of the current pandemic situation. For the students who have already taken up courses abroad do not have any second choice other than going back and completing their education.
