The many hurdles for students

Source: The Hindu

Relevance: This article explains the challenges faced by Indian students abroad and provides suggestions.

Synopsis:

Indian students studying overseas and those looking to go abroad face many COVID-related challenges

Indian students in abroad:

• Students from China and India accounted for 47% of all active foreign students in the U.S. in 2020
• Indian students comprised the second-largest student community in the U.K. and Australia in 2019-2020.
• Similarly, Indian students are now the largest group within the international student community in Canada.

But despite that, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Indian students face several problems which need to be addressed.

Issues faced by Indian students during Covid-19:

1. Indian students were forced to delay their plans in 2020 due to the imposition of lockdowns, disruption of flights, and embassies not issuing student visas.
2. Furthermore, many countries have closed their borders and/or restricted flights from India.
3. Many foreign universities require students to get vaccinated before they go. Covaxin and Sputnik V are yet to be recognised by the World Health Organization. Countries like the U.S. do not accept students who have been inoculated with these vaccines and have told them to get re-vaccinated.
4. Due to the disruption caused by COVID-19, students overseas are finding it difficult to get jobs.

All this led to a drop in the number of Indian students going abroad to study in 2020. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, while in 2019 nearly 5.9 lakh students went overseas for higher education, in 2020 only 2.6 lakh were able to go.

Suggestions:

Policies pertaining to air travel and recognition of Covaxin need to be addressed at the earliest to facilitate smooth travel for tourists seeking to go overseas.