KOCHI: July 7, Aishwarya Sreenivas, a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, wrote an Instagram post on the struggles she faced to get an admission in the US—from competing to procure one of the 30 percent seats available in her academic programme, to powering through the pandemic which struck the world during her fourth year of college. Like millions of other international students, she was being asked to choose between falling sick in a country that has run out of hospital beds and losing the work permit that she worked towards for five years. “This is a choice between being deported and risking my life,” she wrote.
Kochi native Aishwarya’s post comes a day after the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) announcement that international students pursuing higher education in the US must exit the country if their university does not offer in-person classes or a hybrid model comprising both in-person and online classes. The ruling has come as a bolt out of the blue for around two lakh Indian students in the country.
Indian students constitute the second-largest international student community in the US, after the Chinese, as per the the Institute of International Education, a US-government funded body. With the increasing number of coronavirus cases in America, several universities had considered and even opted for an online course load for the next year or fall semester. However, since ruling, US universities are also scrambling to protect the international students and are being forced to resume on-site classes.
Kochi-native Anne Emmanuel, a Business Analytics student at the University of Texas, Dallas, said that the news startled the entire student community. “The fact that the statement was ambiguous also brought anxiety and fear to us. A few points that were mentioned, such as the option to transfer to another university with in-person classes if the current university offers only remote learning, are not viable option. Ninety-five per cent of international students will not transfer as their finances will be affected. Presently, we’re yet to receive more information from our universities,” she said.
Anne stressed that social distancing can be extremely difficult during in-person lectures. “In my class, the majority are international students—a few core courses have a high enrollment of students. Even if on-site classes resume, we will be forced to opt for the university transport buses.
With their current frequency, they are packed with zero social distancing. As students, we can’t afford personal transport,” she said. Anne added that a few friends from the university who left during spring break to their respective countries are also stranded back home due to the visa and travel restrictions. “Either one has to stay in a country with booming Covid-19 cases or return to one’s own country which can destabilize our plans for education. We might also lose out on any employment opportunities in the US,” she added.
A toll on future admission prospects
While Malayali students in the US and their parents back home cite anxiety and helplessness, career consultants in Kochi say that the recent ruling will see many students favouring safety over opportunity, thereby deferring their admissions or choosing a country that has dealt with the pandemic efficiently. “As expected, it affects both parties—existing students, new admissions and the universities themselves, as the recruitment of international students is a major income for these countries. For now, new admissions are awaiting their Class XII and degree results. Universities are issuing offer letters but mostly for a later date.
Immigration offices are closed and visa processing procedures are delayed. Given the current scenario, parents and their wards would prefer countries like New Zealand that handled the pandemic effectively,” said Captain Sojan Jos, MD of Edu Career Services Pvt Ltd. The new ruling in the US will also require parents to consider destinations in which the government takes care of the international community such as Canada, he added. Chief career consultant Sajith Thomas, MD of Careertestlive, highlighted that with the pandemic and the new ruling, the future of overseas education is more of a wait-and-watch scenario.
“A student of mine who received admission at the Georgia Tech University was asked to either opt for online classes or defer the admission to the next year. I recommend the latter as one of the major aspects of an international education is the experience and opportunities in the job market. When you have websites like Edx which offers courses from Harvard, why would one spend an enormous sum to do the same? Currently, students are skeptical and parents are paranoid,” he said.