According to a report by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), which comes up with the global ranking of educational institutions every year, 48% of Indian students who wanted to study abroad are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experts at QS have pointed out that the reduced chances of employability in the post-COVID-19 world and the loss of investment in an already expensive international higher education have affected the students who were planning to study abroad.
QS IGAUGE, under the complete operational control of London-based QS, rated the Indian colleges and Universities in its report titled “Indian Student’s Mobility report 2020: Impact of COVID-19 on Higher Education Choices”
The report suggested that the COVID0-19 pandemic had impacted 48.46% of Indian students’ plans to study abroad. However, a large proportion of students who wanted to pursue studies outside STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) have reconsidered their decision to study abroad.
There could be an increased demand for STEM-based professionals in the near future, but that might not be the case for non-STEM courses, which forced a large proportion of non-STEM students to reconsider their decisions on higher studies.
The COVID-19 may cause drastic changes in student mobility for higher education while educational institutes
adapt to e-learning practices.A key factor determining the spread of communicable diseases is global travel. Pronounced changes in learning and teaching practices for all levels of education can be expected as the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Student mobility in times to come has become a subject of debate and deliberations during this pandemic period. The higher education community is going to face challenges in the international context, according to various findings.
The report summarized the issues Indian students may face for their higher studies within the country and abroad.
According to the report, the Indian students are likely to face issues in international as well as inter-state mobility. Biu the magnitude of change in international mobility could be exponential.
Ths SARS-CoV-2 virus that infected more than 4 million people worldwide has forced the countries to impose international travel restrictions.
More than 78,000 people are infected in India, killing 2,564 people. The lockdown that began on March 25 is likely to be extended until the end of May. And the Covid-19 pandemic is definitely going to impact Indian students’ studies abroad.
