Coronavirus Hasn’t Crushed Study Abroad Plans for students; ‘More Competition’ in 2021 as many previous year students are also applying.
The process to apply to foreign universities for the 2021 academic session has already started, and Indian students, who make up a large chunk of the international students in countries like the United States, Canada, UK, and Australia, are as keen to apply like every other year, despite the fear of Covid-19 still looming large.
Most universities across the world have opened up applications for their Fall semester (starting September 2021). They are, however, still undecided on whether or not to allow international students to come to campus. The decision completely depends on the respective countries’ travel regulations and Covid-related restrictions.
Despite all the uncertainties, students seem to be undeterred in pursuing higher education abroad.
Experts in the field of international education, however, feel students are likely to face more competition in 2021 because those who gave up on their foreign dream in 2020 are applying again for the 2021 session, thereby increasing the number of applicants.
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‘More students are applying this year’
Pavithra Srinivasan, founder, Galvanize Test Prep, an ed-tech platform that helps students realize their dream to study abroad, said, “After people realized that this thing (Covid-19) is here to stay and they cannot drop their goals completely, from August we have seen an uptick in students who are registering with us. This means they have the same kind of interest as last year to study abroad
“In fact, it looks like 2021 is going to be an interesting year because more students are applying this year, including those who dropped their plan for 2020 because of the pandemic. Students are thinking of having an admission offer in their hands, whether they will defer it if need be is something that they want to decide upon later,” she added.
Galvanize had in November conducted a survey on 2,400 students registered with the platform to understand their preferences, and 89 percent of the respondents said they wanted to continue with their plans of studying abroad. Only around 11 percent of the total respondents said they have completely dropped their plans.
Talking about the increased competition for 2021 academic session, Rachna Dua, a Delhi-based freelance education consultant, said, “Students do fear that competition will be more in 2021 as those who had dropped their plans in 2020 are also applying for next year
Studying abroad dreams are not shattered just delayed due to COVID-19
