‘Study Abroad’: Countries’ pandemic response, cost of education influence students’ choice of courses, sa…

While the Coronavirus pandemic is ongoing, students from India are still looking at options to study abroad. In 2021, there was also a high number of students from India studying at international universities. However, it appears that international education has also gone hybrid, just as education has. WorldGrad, an EdTech platform, announced in its Study Abroad Survey that Indian students are increasingly choosing to pursue hybrid education options. According to the survey, about 17% of students are now opting to study in a hybrid model, up from 55% to 72% in the last nine months.

Many students’ plans to study abroad have been affected by the most recent global wave of the Omicron variant of Coronavirus. The parameters affected by this were travel, finances, and mode of study. The study also discovered that the cost of education has become an increasingly important factor in students’ choice of education. Approximately the same number of students cited ranking of universities and cost of education as the most important factors in choosing institutions and education.

There was also a huge overlap in these groups. 72% of students who took the survey chose the hybrid mode – studying online for part of the course and on campus for the other part in order to save money. This figure was 55% a few months ago, the platform reported. According to the survey, 66.8% of students stated that their plans for overseas education were adversely affected by the Coronavirus pandemic since their parents were not comfortable with their children moving abroad in such a situation.

Thirdly, students should consider how countries are handling the COVID-19 situation in their destination countries when choosing their courses. Therefore, while the US was the most preferred destination for Indian students (preferred by 41%), Canada came in second (21%), followed by Australia and the UK (18% and 16% respectively). As a result, the Australian and US governments may be able to attract more international students than they had been in the past due to the pandemic.