Students Planning Foreign Education Will Face More Competition In 2021: Here’s The Reason Why?

Despite the fear of Covid-19, the application process to foreign universities for the 2021 academic session has already started and Indian students are showing a keen interest in them.

More Competition For 2021 Session

So far, Indian students make up a large chunk of the international students in countries like the United States, Canada, UK and Australia.

Across the world, several universities have opened up applications for their Fall semester (starting September 2021). 

Although, they are still undecided on whether or not to allow international students to come to campus. 

The decision totally lies on the respective countries’ travel regulations and Covid-related restrictions.

Students seem to be undeterred in pursuing higher education abroad, under all these uncertainties.

But experts say that students are likely to face more competition in 2021.

Since, students who gave up on their foreign dream in 2020 are applying again for the 2021 session, hence increasing the number of applicants.

Rise In Applicants

“After people realised that this thing (Covid-19) is here to stay and they cannot drop their goals completely, from August we have seen an uptick in students who are registering with us. This means they have the same kind of interest as last year to study abroad,” said Pavithra Srinivasan, founder, Galvanize Test Prep, an ed-tech platform that helps students realise their dream to study abroad.

She said, “In fact, it looks like 2021 is going to be an interesting year because more students are applying this year, including those who dropped their plan for 2020 because of the pandemic. Students are thinking of having an admission offer in their hands, whether they will defer it if need be is something that they want to decide upon later,”.

Active Participation By Students

The intent to study abroad is reflected in the number of students taking the GRE test and TOEFL, said Stephanie Winters, public relations manager, Education Testing Service, an agency that conducts TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and GRE (Graduate Record Examination). 

Winters said, “To date, more than 4,00,000 test-takers globally have registered for the ‘TOEFL iBT Home Edition’ (TOEFL taken at home) and GRE General Test at home since their launch eight months ago, tens of thousands of which are from India alone,”.

According to her, “This is a positive signal that students are taking active steps towards their study-abroad journeys…,”.

The other industry experts also agreed that the number of aspirants for foreign universities has not been affected by the pandemic.