International students who dropped their study abroad plans in 2020 are also applying for the 2021 session, and foreign education experts say that it only means that students are likely to face more competition next year.
As the 2021 admission cycles in popular study destinations such as the United States, UK, Canada and Australia are set to begin, international students including those from India are looking forward to fulfilling their study abroad dreams despite a surge in the Covid-19 cases.
Universities all around the world have started opening up their application windows for the Fall semester 2021. However, they are not sure if they would be ready to welcome international students to campus.
Galvanize Test Preps founder Pavithra Srinivasan said that after prospective students realised that Covid-19 is here to stay and they cannot crush their study abroad dreams completely, there has been a rise in the number of students applying to international universities. This also implies that they are equally interested in studying abroad as they were in 2020.
She further mentioned that 2021 would be an interesting year as more students are seeking admission to foreign universities this year, including those who dropped their plan because of the global pandemic. Even if they decide on deferring their entry if need be, later on, students wish to have at least one offer in their hands.
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A survey conducted by Galvanize in November 2020, of 2,400 students found that only 11% of the respondents wanted to drop their study abroad dreams completely. A whopping 89% of them said that they wanted to continue with their plans.
A freelance education consultant based in Delhi Rachna Dua said that students wishing to study abroad in 2021 do hope that there will be more competitive because of students who had dropped their plans last year also applying for the 2021-22 academic year.
She added that students are also applying to way more universities because of this, including state universities and colleges are not quite popular, just to avoid the risk of not fulfilling their dream next year.
Education Testing Services (ETS) public relations manager, Stephanie Winters said that there has been a rise in GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) applications volume.
As of now, over 4,00,000 candidates globally have registered for the GRE General Test and TOEFL iBT Home Edition, tens of thousands of whom are Indian students, she said.
Despite the pandemic, India continues to be an integral part of the study abroad market, with it being the largest countries of origin, second only to China, she continued.
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