It's a terrible time to be a student. If looking to pursue higher education at a time when the economy is slumping wasn’t bad enough, Indian students who were hoping to go abroad to study this year are now faced with uncertainty. Applying for higher education is never an easy task, even in the best of conditions it is fairly stressful and requires a good amount of planning. With the ongoing pandemic, there’s a general feeling of dread among students, along with anxiety about the future.
Around this time of year is when most students receive admissions from universities abroad and prepare to move — from figuring out finances to getting paperwork ready for visa processes. This is often well-planned and future moves too are based on this. But with the COVID-19 crisis, this has all gone haywire. According to the International Consultants for Education and Fairs (ICEF), India is the world’s second largest source of international students, with over 7,50,000 students studying abroad in July 2018.
Marketing communications professional Suvarna resigned from her job of three years to prepare for competitive exams and immersed herself in applying to universities. She was elated when she received admission to the University of Southern California, her dream school. She was accepted to an MSc program, but given the conditions surrounding the pandemic she says it’s very confusing to even receive admission at this stage.
“I received my admission, but I wonder what the situation is going to be like four months down the line? Visa centres are shut. We can’t proceed with bank processes, we can’t apply for a visa. It’s confusing because universities are still following the normal process such as asking us to submit financial statements, declare funds in order for them to give us things from their end,” she says.
Universities, too, find themselves in a predicament they have never before faced. For the ongoing semester, many have started online classes. And if things do not get better, the options given by universities fall largely into two brackets — a one-year deferral, or starting off the semester online and welcoming students to the campus when things get better.
With no reduction in fees announced, the second option has left many students in a fix, especially those pursuing one-year courses. Many students say they pay for the experience and not just the tuition, which spending the first semester off-campus will deny them.
Suvarna says she plans to defer if she has to take classes online for the first semester, because it doesn’t seem like a viable option.
Journalist Nehmat Kaur, who is going to the University of Oxford this year to pursue an MBA, is going forward with her admission this year as of now. “I want to go this year because I don’t know what the economy will look like in the coming year, and I’d like to have the certainty of being in a Master’s program,” she says.
Bengaluru-based HR assistant Aishwarya was to leave for Canada on April 20 to pursue a PG Diploma in International HR Management. She had quit her job to be able to make the move, but is still waiting for a response from the college.
“I’m just waiting for the college to tell me if they will defer me to the next intake or something of the sort. It might take a month or so for things to settle down. Before I apply for another job or go back to the job I had, I need to settle this, because I’ve already got into the college,” she says.
And while deferrals are still on the table, it presents a new challenge for students such as Sushma Mahabala, who is looking to join the London School of Economics for a course in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the coming term. If things do not get better in a month and if the situation arises that she has to defer, then she says she’ll have to start the scholarship applications again next year. In addition to this, she is also waiting to take the IELTS test, which she had scheduled for March.
Universities with a later start date have largely told students to wait and watch as the situation unfolds, and haven’t moved timelines for the term that starts in August-September.
“We have been receiving emails from the university saying they will try their best. But, students have planned everything around it. Even if it’s a one-year course, for people like me who want to go do Master’s and come back to India, our personal lives are planned around it. If it’s delayed by one year, other things in your life will also have to be rearranged,” Sushma says.
Students who had prepared for competitive exams in order to be able to go abroad have also been left in the lurch, with exams such as IELTS and GMAT being suspended. For TOEFL and GRE, an option to take it at home has now been offered.
But apart from this, the nationwide lockdown presents other problems as well. For Kashmir-based Aarif Shah, the government lockdown in Kashmir, exacerbated by the lockdown imposed to flatten the curve for coronavirus, means that he could not apply to the PhD program he wanted, and ended up losing an academic year.
“For this particular program, I was waiting for a year but unfortunately missed it. I’ll see if I can apply in the next session. Because due to the Kashmir lockdown and then the coronavirus lockdown, a lot of my time has got wasted. What can one do when there is a complete shutdown.
“Life in Kashmir is a humiliation every day. Education is among the many sectors that have been affected badly,” he says.
For those choosing to study abroad this year, the worry remains about how things will pan out. “I’m a little anxious but I’m counting on the program to help me figure it out. If there is a situation where I haven’t gotten things done in time, I’m sure others from different countries will be facing similar issues,” says Nehmat.
But for Aishwarya and Suvarna, who are still weighing their options, online classes is not something they are currently considering as they have paid for the full college experience. Spending the first semester away from campus takes away from the whole experience, they say, and will not be worth the money spent on the tuition.
According to Study Abroad counsellors, the situation looks grim and might affect long-term plans for many.
“There are many students who have already got admission but are now reconsidering because the classes have moved online and there is no clarity by when situation will improve. So for students who actually want to live abroad, paying a hefty fee just to attend classes online does not seem to be a lucrative option,” Anupam Singha, who runs a Study Abroad consultancy firm in Delhi, told PTI.