2022-06-09 12:44:29
The Covid-19 pandemic forced international education to adapt. In this central feature we look at the ways in which the crisis has irrevocably changed our sector and permanently reimagined the student journey. Julian Hall reports.
International travel ground to a near halt, borders closed, and universities cancelled programs and desperately moved lectures online. Students and institutions are unlikely to ever forget the anxiety they faced as normal service stopped overnight.
But in its place appeared new virtual and remote opportunities. With limitations and uncertainty came flexibility and open-mindedness as students began to consider education in a new light. Although kickstarted by necessity, these changes have altered the student journey forever.
Original search
The concept of an open day was turned on its head overnight and, initially, search numbers declined. However, the response from many universities was rapid.
"Virtual student fairs and other online solutions became key tools for students and universities alike to connect," says Jack Townsend, marketing director at international recruitment firm FPP, "enabling them to continue meeting face-to-face via video calling, as well as sharing brochures and other materials digitally."
In theory, students from anywhere in the world could connect with universities. Although issues with internet poverty and the digital divide persisted (Canadian Alliance of Student Associations says nearly two-thirds of students they polled encountered difficulties with a reliable internet connection), the positives of the virtual events for those who could access them included the ability to harness a wider range of technology. Townsend says this included "matching systems to help students in their search for their ideal university" and he believes this made the search "easier and more efficient".
"There is also no need for a student to make their way across a busy city, travel several hours, or fight their way through crowds, to spend just a few minutes talking with university representatives, when they can now do this from the comfort of their own home."
FPP’s own research suggests that the habits of students have changed accordingly. They found that two-thirds of students now prefer to meet with university admissions representatives in an online setting, rather than in person.
Despite the evidence for a converging mindset, the searches across destinations and subjects showed variation.
IDP Education, which offers student placements in Australia, New Zealand, USA, UK, the Republic of Ireland and Canada, note that the pandemic impacted the share of searches received by the four biggest destination markets (Australia, US, UK and Canada) from source countries like India.
"For example, while demand for Canada remained high," explains Jonah Duffin, director of External Relations, IDP Connect, "the share of searches Australia received began to decline. IDP has since experienced an uptick in student search interest for Australia, which coincides with relaxed borders and the post-study work extension."
Online academic search platform Studyportals reported a 9.6 per cent increase in page views for online courses during the pandemic, driven largely by interest in UK and European programs. That interest was coming from countries like Turkey, Iran, Nigeria, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
"This hints at the potential of those countries to become important recruitment markets at a time when geographic diversification is a key strategy, to mitigate risk and improve the diversity of perspectives in the classroom," says Cara Skikne, senior editor at Studyportals.
Popular among students before the pandemic, it seems students will continue to look to online platforms for advice on studying abroad.
Application
Delays in offers in the early stages of the pandemic were widespread, according to Jennifer Parsons, director of partnerships and insight at international student engagement specialist UniQuest.
"University teams did incredibly well to perform under such alien and alienating circumstances," Parsons says, "but students definitely felt the repercussions of pipeline delays with high volumes of enquiries and under-resourced admissions teams leading to significant backlogs and slow responses."
The role of technology was pivotal in surmounting these challenges. UniQuest data and insight from across its partner groups suggested that offer-to-enrolment conversion rates were three times higher among international students who had used live chat or WhatsApp during the application process compared to those who hadn’t.
From the university perspective, Jihna Gavilanes, president of university comparison website for international students, Studee, notes that some universities "have continued to favour online interviews rather than in-person, and others continue to accept things like Duolingo language proficiency qualifications which can make applying to study abroad more accessible".
Despite the uncertainty about course format and the individual arrangements countries had made regarding border control, students were still keen to study abroad.
"IDP saw total combined applications to the UK, US, Canada, and Australia increase by 30 per cent year on year throughout the pandemic," says Duffin, adding that "countries that demonstrated welcoming policies were rewarded with high student demand".
"Throughout the pandemic, perceptions of the UK, Canada, and the US improved, whilst New Zealand and Australia have seen declines due to long border closures," he indicates.
Meanwhile, there was diversification in the types of courses attracting the most traffic. Studyportals analytics consultant Laurens Vehmeijer notes that for short courses, the large sub-disciplines decreased in relative market share, while the small ones increased. "This reflects the fact that prior to the pandemic, institutions focused on launching their top courses online," Vehmeijer says. "As the pandemic progressed, they had to launch a greater range of online courses - and demand followed."
Acceptance
While the appetite for studying abroad was undimmed, ultimately mitigated by the option to defer studies in many cases, doubts inevitably remained in the minds of students.
"How were international students to feel confident in committing and firmly accepting their university offer when they didn’t know if teaching would be online or in-person; if they had to fork out for quarantine hotels; or even if quarantine would exist?" asks Parsons. "These aren’t trivial questions, but fundamental need-to-knows for students willing to uproot their lives and significantly invest in their education."
Before deferral options were opened up, the information flow at this stage, as with many other journey stages, was patchy.
"Clarity around these concerns emerged very late in the cycle," notes Parsons, "leading unsurprisingly to a rise in late acceptances as well as delayed deferrals. International students have been consistently forced to make major decisions in short time periods during the Covid crisis, and this lack of advance notice or comprehensive information has left many feeling unconfident in their decision making."
UniQuest witnessed a peak of live chat and "quick questions" late in the application cycle, managing 100,000 WhatsApps across all international learners, with 50% of these interactions originating from Indian and Nigerian markets.
"Since Covid," says Parsons, "an intriguing development that we’ve seen at the acceptance stage in student journeys is a remarkable increase in interest for multiple intakes – both among students and universities.
"September has long been the 'main' intake season, but with universities struggling to deal with demand and students likewise reticent to commit to an institution without a more complete knowledge of what to expect, January intakes have grown in popularity."
UniQuest’s data shows that students applying in January 2021 converted at double the rate of those offered a university place in September. However, Parsons adds, "this radical shift in the make-up of intakes must be caveated though, since competitor markets with primary intakes in January, such as Australia, were inactive during the pandemic. It begs the question then, whether this change is less paradigmatic or more of a temporary trend."
"Aside from health, some of the greatest concerns were economic"
Arrival and studies
In the pre-vaccine phase of the pandemic, nonprofit credential evaluation provider World Education Services studied data from prospective international students, living both in the US and in other countries, as well as prospective internationally-educated immigrant students. They found a maelstrom of student concern.
"Health and wellbeing in the face of Covid-19 was of course a major concern," notes Bryce Loo, associate director of research at WES. "Aside from health, some of the greatest concerns were economic – around economic wellbeing of the students’ home countries and the US, as well as the ability to secure jobs in both locations."
US visa issues were, naturally, another worry. "In the summer of 2020, about 55 per cent of respondents to our surveys said they were 'extremely concerned' about their ability to obtain a visa and be admitted to the US. Our surveys of US higher education professionals who work with international students also found concerns about the issuance of visas, travel bans, and other issues related to students entering the country."
As Loo observes, the vacillation in US policy and subsequent travel bans meant the fears of students were not unfounded.
Flexible and deferred enrolment were the first response. This paid off – eventually. "After an historic drop in the number of international students in the US in the 2020-2021 school year, the first full academic year within the pandemic, new international student enrolment in the US grew an astounding 68 per cent in Fall 2021."
As elsewhere, the single most significant response from HEIs was the fast pivot to online learning and coursework.
Hastening developments that were already in the wind, universities and students embraced widespread online learning, although with the majority expressing the caveat of a return to in-person learning as soon as practicable.
Research carried out by IDP in July 2021 found 45 per cent of students were willing to commence courses online provided they could then transfer to face-to-face. A further 28 per cent were willing to defer until face-to-face became available and only 11 per cent were willing to study fully online – reinforcing the value of the on-campus experience.
The transition in the US was not seamless.
"Initially, the Trump administration made accommodations at the start of the pandemic around March 2020 for international students to take fully online coursework and reside in the US, a policy not normally allowed under federal policy," explains Loo, "but the administration decided not to allow the same policy in Fall 2020, when a significant number of universities and colleges were offering courses mostly or entirely online."
"Partly as a result, many students had to take courses from the institutions from their home countries, often in the middle of the night when classes met live. Under the Biden administration, international students still cannot take online courses only and live in the US, though a hybrid model is allowed."
Loo believes that the interest in expanded online coursework options will drive change post-pandemic, aligning the US more with the 'offshore education' model operated by Australian universities.
The online readiness of Australian universities was a huge help for the country to deal with the pandemic, but there was a lot more that institutions needed to roll out.
Rob Lawrence, one of Australia’s foremost international education researchers and market strategists, sets out the dramatic start to the pandemic that international students from China experienced.
"The pandemic itself coincided with Chinese New Year, meaning that many students had either returned home or deferred their arrival into Australia until after the celebrations. This proved a particular challenge given that most commencing and continuing students from China had not been exposed to independent learning. Yet for many, this became their only option."
Lawrence lists the lack of certainty, the closure of borders, the rapid transition to online studies, conflicting communications and financial hardship among the challenges, and he cites a 4,800+ sample social licence study commissioned by the International Education Association of Australia (and supported by Education NZ) that found "many of the more inherent challenges included anxieties about family back home, the sense of physical separation and the mental health and wellbeing of international students because of lockdowns".
"The loss of campus community exacerbated this challenge," says Lawrence. "The sense of responsibility and care incumbent upon institutions was immense and the subsequent commitments by institutions and most state governments towards supporting their international cohorts was impressive. Many universities provided tens of millions of dollars in financial subsidies, whilst institutions and numerous organisations across the wider community helped in such practical areas as free food preparation and distribution."
Lawrence adds that, in addition to the support provided by institutions and state governments, several significant changes were made to visa regulations, including extensions if students were unable to return home or needed more time to complete their studies. Meanwhile, if graduates were overseas, they had a 12-month extension to apply for their temporary graduate visa (subclass 485).
"And whilst international students were able to extend their number of working hours in certain industries, such as supermarkets," notes Lawrence, "in the past month Home Affairs has announced a temporary relaxation which permits international students to work more than 40 hours per fortnight in any sector and start work prior to commencing their studies."
Graduation, alumni
Graduates also had to begin acclimatising to a world where interviews were held virtually. But that wasn’t the only hurdle.
Kritika Narula, marketing and content lead at job portal Student Circus says that "students started feeling that the pandemic was detrimentally impacting graduate employment prospects and became less confident about navigating the employment and application process".
"Assessment centres were being held virtually, video interviews had become a common step, and no in-person events were available to them for networking. Adaptability was key, but they could easily feel alienated, trying to impress prospective employers when all they had were virtual media to connect with."
Narula references Michael Page as one example of a recruiting firm fully embracing the video interviewing process and notes that consultancy firm EY moved their onboarding process "completely online".
In response, Student Circus took a number of measures including laying on more webinars, workshops and training sessions in partnership with universities, and rolling out an immigration guide and country career guides, which covered aspects including language and culture to job search and networking resources.
The mental health concerns of graduates were perhaps less focused on than those of undergraduates, but US-based student recruitment consultancy Intead paints a resonant picture of graduate student existence.
"As things went online students from host countries could study or work from home, yet international students without a residency off-campus weren’t afforded such options – facing isolation far from family comfort," points out Intead CEO Ben Waxman.
"The value of the US Optional Practical Training experience also diminished. OPT and working students faced financial uncertainty as workplaces were shuttered. Student living arrangements were often cramped and not well-suited to professional work or Zoom meetings. Graduates who found OPT positions joined their new roles remotely, struggling with onboarding, integration, and disconnection. Also lost was the mentoring that comes from daily interactions with colleagues in and around the office. For alumni, career services lost operational support and networking events were delayed or canceled."
However, this rather grim picture has seen a number of newer policies implemented to offer better post-graduation outcomes. Some 22 new fields of study were added to STEM OPT options, notes Waxman, "with new strides for F-1 and J-1 students in STEM academic fields and STEM workers seeking O-1 classification and permanent residence under the National Interest Waiver program."
Some graduates in specific STEM fields now have the right to remain in the US for up to 36 months, with easier paths to permanent residency. Meanwhile, online initiatives started during Covid are also making it easier for international students to enrol and study abroad, especially for adult learners. (See our feature on US Stem.)
Ed Holroyd Pearce of Virtual Internships also has a happy ending story to tell. The agony of cancelled in-person internships quickly gave way to a "wider acceptance and open mindedness towards a remote work experience".
"It's not just that you don't have to go in-person, but also that it can be done across a different time frame – perhaps just a couple of hours a day around classes."
Laying on virtual internships is one of a number of measures that global engagement specialist Gretchen Dobson references in paying homage to the work of alumni offices.
"More alumni career panels have been held and some schools broke fundraising records with more alumni supporting international student hardship funds," Dobson notes. "In the Northern hemisphere, graduation ceremonies are including the classes of 2020 and 2021 to come back to campuses to participate in graduation. Institutions recognise the investments in their relationships with alumni, both local and global."
Dobson, however, makes a distinction between the undergraduate international student cohort reaching graduation and accessing such services and the two-year community college, trade, vocational education students, “a growing demographic in some countries like Australia,” she says, who do not have alumni associations.
“Even before Covid, these students’ 'lived experiences' at their institution has been so short and for some, non-existent. There has been a lack of personal connections and, in turn, a lot of information has not been passed on to students. For years, international students have been unfamiliar with the transfer process, Covid just exasperated these challenges!”
"Lack of access to information and inconsistent communications proved controversial at the height of the pandemic"
The raised profile of international students
While HEIs' pivot to online learning was one of the headlines of the pandemic, it was offset, to some extent, by the often poor flow of information to students, which had a knock-on effect when it came to mental health.
"Lack of access to information and inconsistent communications proved controversial at the height of the pandemic," acknowledges Lawrence, "which most industry leaders recognise as needing to be addressed in future."
Lawrence believes that institutions in Australia are looking to 'futureproof' themselves by examining alternative modes of delivery, "whether through TNE programs, a greater emphasis upon online offshore delivery, a focus upon blended options and, the provision of intensive short courses". (See our feature on intra-regional hubs.)
These ventures will find themselves being echoed by other host countries too. Likewise, another feature in common will be a trend towards consolidation and market realignment over growth. "This includes ensuring greater diversity to negate the dominance of specific nationality and discipline groups across the student body," says Lawrence.
Ultimately, the trials and tribulations faced by international students have raised their profile among lawmakers and administrators – they are now a known, and valuable, quantity.
"International students contribute to the community through employment, events, purchases, city vibe and cultural diversity," notes Lawrence. "Their voices have needed to be heard and there is now much to suggest that the contribution of international students is more widely recognised, appreciated and understood. The challenge now is ensuring that such sentiments are sustained."
"International students and recent graduates will never forget how they felt during this challenging period," says Gretchen Dobson. "Institutions and organisations actively supporting these different cohorts will remain in the hearts and minds of these global graduates for a long time."
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