For Indian students pursuing higher education abroad, or applying to an overseas institution, the COVID-19 crisis has posed unprecedented challenges. While the study abroad process has, over the years, evolved into a smoothly-oiled industry, the ravages of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have made this unfamiliar territory to navigate for students, institutions and counsellors alike. Study Abroad platforms that provide guidance, test prep and other essential services to students have been especially hard-pressed to rise to the practical challenges posed by COVID: closed borders or travel bans, slowdowns in visa appointments, cancelled exams, vaccination or quarantine requirements, and students’ understandable unease with online-only courses.
These challenges have meant sharp drops in the numbers of students these platforms guide, over 2020, although this year, the graph has become an upward trend once again.
Read on Firstpost: As COVID-19 fuelled shift to online learning, Indian students reflect on how their overseas education experience was impacted
“The pandemic has created a major upheaval… with schools and colleges closed, the student community is majorly impacted. Among these, the sizeable number of students that were supposed to go abroad for further studies seems to be stuck in limbo,” says Vivek Jain, the chief business officer at Shiksha.com.
Jain points to data from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to observe that “2020 witnessed a dip of 55 percent with only 2.6 lakh students going abroad for further studies as compared to nearly 5.19 lakh in 2019. In Fall 2020, the students who had already applied were not able to travel due to flight restrictions and the closure of high commission biometrics. However, Spring 2021 saw a rebound as a significant percentage of those who could not go abroad in Fall 2020 decided to go this year.”
While quick and dramatic changes on the global front form one part of the story, on the home front, the lockdown imposed after March 2020 raised additional roadblocks for study abroad consultancies. “We remain the only sector that has had to suffer a continuous and prolonged lockdown for the last 14 months,” says KP Singh, the founder-director of IMFS. “While our coaching/test prep centres for GRE/GMAT/SAT/TOEFL/IELTS/PTE et al, are shut even today, the consulting aspects of the business were allowed to operate briefly, for in-person consulting for two months.”
For IMFS and similar centres, this has meant shifting the entire coaching and counselling process online. Singh says that this led to a drop of 25 percent, as compared to 2019, in the number of students taking test prep. “The greatest challenges thus, continue to be a lack of contact and in-person/coaching guidance, health scares, and of course the financial crunch, which further restricts the intentions of students to go abroad,” Singh adds.
The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India has been particularly devastating, but there are some learnings from the first wave that have helped students and institutions make more informed choices. Counsellors Firstpost reached out to said that while they had little recourse but to advise students to defer their university entries during the first wave, this time round, institutions and applicants are both more willing to make accommodations. Students can better manage their expectations of what the study abroad experience will entail in this scenario, while some institutions have relaxed admission deadlines and requirements, or suspended the submission of standardised test scores, to make the process as applicant-friendly as possible.
“The impact of the second wave has not been as severe because the global situation was different in each country and students were better prepared,” says Shiksha.com’s Vivek Jain. “Currently, the second wave is not fully over and we have seen it has delayed filing of visas, delayed loan approvals, delay in the processing of biometrics, etc. Also, some self-funded students have had to postpone or cancel their decision because of financial losses for their families.”
Border closures for Australia and New Zealand and no offline intake has hugely impacted the number of Indian students applying to those countries. At such a time, the UK and Canada are two countries that are reporting gains in intake. International students have also been given the option of deferring their entries to January 2022 if the COVID situation doesn’t allow them to start their programmes in August 2021.
“During the first wave, students and parents were more worried if it’ll be safe to travel. However, due to the increasing pace of vaccinations, that concern has now reduced. The present concerns now are relating to delays and long-term impact on jobs and career prospects post-graduating,” observes Jain.
“I perceive that for Fall of 2022, the number of students going to study in the US may hit at least 80 percent of the 2019 numbers, unless COVID takes another serious turn,” says IMFS’ KP Singh. “While Australia has declared that it shall allow international student entry only from June of 2022, states like New South Wales may actually experiment with getting 250 students from this July season. How they achieve that remains a logistical challenge though.”
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Shiksha.com advises students to familiarise themselves with the following —
Visa and travel restrictions
Although non-immigrant travellers are not permitted to enter the US, certain exceptions have been approved. If their academic programme, including optional practical training (OPT), begins on 1 August or later, students from various countries, including India, can apply for a National Interest Exception. They will be automatically considered for the exception if their visa applications qualify them in either category. Students with valid F-1 and M-1 visas can enter the US 30 days before the start of their programme.
Although flights between India and the UK are not prohibited, only individuals with legal permission to live and study in England will be permitted to enter. Before traveling to the UK, Indian students must obtain a Biometric Residence Permit. India has been added to England’s travel ban red list, requiring visitors to spend 10 days in quarantine at their own expense at a government-approved hotel.
Vaccination
In the US, vaccination is required before students can enter the country. Rules regarding vaccination are also changing frequently. While some major study abroad destinations have not made this requirement explicit, anyone who does not have a WHO-certified vaccination certificate may be denied entry. As a result, getting the jab should be the priority right now.
Online vs Offline Medium of Instruction
According to industry analysts, online programmes will be available to 80 percent of students accepted to overseas universities in 2020. Less than 10 percent of overseas students going to study at any university in Australia prefer to study online, but a considerable percentage of students will be content with starting online and then switching to in-person learning later. In light of the foregoing, numerous colleges have found a silver lining to the dilemma by implementing a hybrid teaching method.