Over the last and a half years, every country faced multiple lockdowns, financial constraints, closed international borders and more problems due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, once again students across the globe are flocking towards foreign universities to pursue higher education.

By the end of summer 2021, the United States had already issued visas to 62,000 Indian students as compared to October 2019 - September 2020 in which only 15,000 F-1 student visas were issued to Indians. Similarly to this, as per the recent data shared by the United Kingdom Home Officials, the UK has issued a total of 90,669 UK student visas to Indians in the 12 months ending in 2021 September, marking a 102% rise from the last year.

As it is evident from the visa data, the interest in the United Kingdom higher education is increasing year on year. And this can be attributed to several reasons such as –

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  renowned institutions and their legacy,

  
  


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  quality professors,

  
  


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  life experience and the opportunities to pursue careers in an international hub.

  
  

However, the graduate route is making it more valuable to pursue higher education in the United Kingdom, stated by Director South India, British Council, Janaka Pushpanathan.

Top Destinations to Study Abroad

As per the recent Cambridge International’s Annual Destinations, despite the COVID pandemic, Cambridge’s students' desire to continue higher education from other countries has not changed. One-third of the Cambridge students have already joined overseas universities amid COVID. Also, according to the survey, the top 4 international destinations for higher education around the world are Australia, Canada, UK and US.

As per the data shared by study abroad counsellors, the reasons why Australia, Canada, the UK and the United States continue to attract foreign students could range from quality teaching to better opportunities provided by the Universities.

INTO University Partnerships Highlights

A global survey has recently been counted by INTO University Partnerships with the students from 93 countries in August 2021 to better understand the impact of the COVID pandemic on the foreign education desires of the students and higher education choices of the Generation Z population (individuals born after 1996). It also highlighted the top 3 reasons to choose a university. Their reasons are

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  High-quality teaching - 54.4%

  
  


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  Availability of scholarships - 50.5%

  
  


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  A high graduate employment rate - 46.4%

  
  

The Recruitment Director of South Asia, INTO Universities Partnerships Diwakar Chandiok shared that the increase in students for foreign education could be attributed to the relaxations in the application requirements. He also said that many American universities waived off SAT, GRE scores for admissions amid the COVID Pandemic. Besides this, students were also provided with facilities to arrive late on campus or they can join the first semester online.

Following Brexit, many jobs that were preferably taken up by the Europeans have now become available in the market for everyone. Thus more post-study work opportunities are available for the foreign students.

Views of Leap Scholar

As per the Leap Scholar, an overseas EduTech Start-up, 61% of the students who approached the company for counselling for the year 2021 admission cycle wanted to pursue higher education in the United Kingdom, followed by 23% who chose Canada and 11% who chose the US.

Vaibhav Singh, Co-founder of Leap Scholar, stated that the COVID pandemic is not going to do any change in the decade long legacies of these countries. He said that to choose a university, Rankings are not the only parameter for students. Many universities in South Asia are soaring in the ranking charts but still, they fail to attract international students. Many students are automatically drawn to English-speaking countries since English has become the world’s business language. And due to COVID, 2022 will be the biggest year for studying overseas as there is huge pent-up demand after the pandemic crisis.

IDP Connect's New Horizons Research Highlights

According to the IDP Connect’s New Horizons research conducted across 55 countries, over 39% of the participants chose Canada as their first choice followed by 17% choosing the United Kingdom and the US. And 16% of the respondents chose Australia as their first choice.

Regional Director (South Asia) of IDP Education, Piyush Kumar said America is bouncing back in the new political regime. And for Indian students, one of the most popular drivers is rules based on post-study work. Both the countries, Australia and Canada are offering liberal courses and easy permanent residency provisions to individuals.

Despite the Australian borders being closed during the whole pandemic time, the country has managed to attract foreign talent because of the recent new changes in the post-study work visa, which now allows the students to stay back for 3 years.

Fateh Education Highlights

An international higher education consulting provider — Fateh Education — also received an increase of 60% enquiries from last year. According to the CEO Suneet Singh Kochar this increment to the pent up dement is due to the COVID pandemic. He also said that the COVID pandemic has slowed down the whole world. But it also accelerated the individual’s plans, especially related to education. Many of the individuals have started pursuing online courses and also up-skilled themselves during the lockdown period to prepare themselves for the next step. Many of the countries are also having post-study work regulations. Individuals are not only aiming to pursue a foreign degree, but they also aspire to build a new and better life.

Truman State University Highlights

American universities have also reported the increase of interest from the students across the globe. Truman State University also received a doubled number of international student applications as compared to the past for the spring 2022 semester.

Truman State University’s Executive Director of International Education, Tim Urbonya stated that while America remains the top receiving country for foreign students, the number has declined over the last several years due to the more restrictive immigration policies, travel bans and strained international relations. The present administration is welcoming international students. The University has had a sizable number of deferrals over the last 3 semesters. It also expects that the trend to persist into spring 2022 but the number of applications has surely increased two fold.