Maple Assist and WWEC partnered with Academica Group to launch the first of its kind – International Prospective Student Study, which is designed to gauge the impact of COVID-19 crisis on international students. The study provides crucial insights into the applicants’ response to the pandemic and shifts in their preferences. The latest survey, one of the first in this series, was conducted in April over a period of 12 days, drawing participation from more than 2,500 respondents from 17 countries.

The survey threw up some interesting results. With the onset of this pandemic, student preferences appear to have shifted with respect to various dimensions of their study-abroad decision. Among those who were planning to fly overseas for higher education, only 67% want to go ahead with their decision this year. The remaining are sceptical of taking the big leap in the near future. It was found in another large-group interaction that students who are enrolled for one year or shorter duration program are more likely to defer their offer to the next intake when in-person classes become feasible.

So, among those who do indeed want to kick-start their program despite challenges, 72% are still concerned that their school year will not start as per the schedule. Yet, it is the May-intake students who have had to make some tricky choices this season. About half of the May-intake students want to keep their registration and then join from September, while the other half was ready to take up online classes until in-person classes are resumed in Canada this fall. The September-intake students, on the other hand, are still in suspense over what might happen by the time summer is at its tail end.

Another scenario presented to students is – what if online classes need to be extended beyond the fall? To this question, we received a very mixed or widely distributed result. Some 37% said they were willing to settle for online classes beyond the fall, while 31% felt they were not and the remaining 32% were not sure. There were some concerns students had with online classes such as time zone differences, little scope of in-person interaction with classmates, lack of reliable Internet, etc. Many of those stood for opting out of online delivery had a strong preference for in-person classes and wanted a study-abroad experience. Again, such students were more likely to have applied for shorter duration courses.

One of the more prominent near-term concerns among the students was accessibility to loans for the processing of study permits and visas. Since the biometric centres are closed, only 26% have approved study permits till date. And because bank loaning services are on halt during the lockdown, chances are that study permit and visa application processing may be delayed further.

Job prospects are another major area that is a matter of concern for most students. A substantial proportion of the students (58%) are worried about securing a work permit after graduation. As many as 63% are not sure about the prospects of finding jobs in Canada after graduation and 70% are wondering if they will get work opportunities while attending school. So it did not come as a surprise when many students said in an open-ended prompt that they could be convinced to take online courses if they were still eligible for work permit, eventually get good placements and are offered a lower tuition fee.

Good news is that some universities have already heeded to the student concerns and reduced tuition fee for online courses. The government has also stepped up to alleviate foreseeable problems through a range of initiatives which include emergency reimbursement funds, student and new graduate employment schemes and assurance that students will get work permit even if they complete up to 50% of their syllabus online. Given the measures put in place by the Canadian government and universities, a majority of students continue to look forward to begin their programs – even in these strange times of COVID-19.