Re-visiting their choices | Indian students defer study abroad plans following COVID outbreak

As expected, a majority of Indian students who were looking at pursuing their studies in foreign countries, as now revisiting their options as looking at either staying back in India or exploring other safer countries for their studies.

An ongoing survey by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) has observed that 61 per cent of the prospective students surveyed have decided to defer their course, 8 per cent have chosen to study in a different country and another 7 per cent have cancelled their plans altogether.

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a Britain based education research agency that brings out the World University Rankings every year.

The survey as of August 11, consisted of 66,959 responses, of which 11,310 were Indian students.

Several universities have moved their Fall semester entirely online and this could be a major factor in the apprehensions of the students. 48% are not keen to pursue the program online, with only 17% expressing their interest in pursuing online for this semester. 82% of the students who would want to still continue their studies with the foreign universities online, are expecting that the fees will be reduced. 24% of the students expect that the tuition fees will be reduced by 50% while 19% expect a 40% discount and 20% expect a discount of up to 30%.

Data shared by QS with a leading Indian daily, explained that 49% of the respondents plan to study “post graduate by coursework” level (MBA, Masters and graduate diploma), 19% at “post graduate by research” level (Masters’ and PhD), while 29% intend to pursue UG studies in foreign countries. The remaining 3% plan to pursue English, vocational and foundation level courses abroad.