Impact of Coronavirus on International Education
At 12 on New Year’s eve, we were raising our glasses to a better and much more educational 2020. None of us knew the villain of 2020 was waiting at the back, ready to shout, “Surprise”
Coronavirus is now a reality for most people across the world, more so for students and colleges.
But does that mean international education is doomed for the coming years?
Absolutely not.
Countries are recovering and colleges and universities across the world are finding new and unconventional ways to deal with this situation. Countries like New Zealand, Seychelles, Vatican, Fiji are corona-free.
Colleges in Australia like Federation University and Murdoch University hold almost 49% and 41% international studentsrespectively. Statistics like these show that the international education sector in Australia would have taken a huge hit if not for collective measures taken by the government and different universities.
Several colleges like Melbourn-based Deakin University, RMIT University, Monash University and many more have rolled out hardship packages and expanded grants for international students. That’s not all. To help make education safe, most universities have made a transition to online learning. Southern Cross University decided to make all of its degrees available online.
Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister of Australia, has also announced plans to open up the borders for international students. The Australian government has also gone on to create a dedicated and multi-lingual support service for international students so that they can reach out for information and assistance.
Universities are learning to accept change and shift the classes to digital medium. While turning around an entire course structure and the buzzing cultural activities in a college campus to an online medium is no easy task, innovative ways are being founded all across the world.
The University of Utah is offering an extended admissions period to students to give them time to deal with the uncertainty going on; University of Akron foregoing application fees and considering students for scholarship programs and several more who have taken on a more personal and genuine approach by communicating with students directly.
While the situation may not look so good at the present, things are going to get better real soon.
“It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass.” - J.R.R. Tolkien