LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With COVID-19 forcing university applicants to rethink their higher education choices, BridgeU, a leading provider of university and careers guidance services for international secondary schools in 119 countries, recently undertook an analysis of three different proprietary data sets in order to gauge the pandemic’s impact on global mobility for students around the globe. In the first data set, BridgeU surveyed 2020 graduates from high schools in 81 countries and asked them how, and to what extent, the pandemic has affected their study plans in 2020. In the second data set, the same survey questions were fielded to international college and career counselors working at high schools in 41 countries. The third data set analyzed universities and programs ‘shortlisted’ as study destination choices by the 2021 graduating cohort on the BridgeU platform compared to the same platform usage for the 2020 cohort, to better understand whether the decisions of this year’s graduating cohort translate to longer term impact to global student mobility.
Key findings from each dataset, listed below, offer insights into potential trends impacting international student admissions in the coming year:
2020 graduating cohort:*
- Most students’ plans remain unchanged (69%), despite the disruption, with 86% of students surveyed still planning to enroll at a university in fall 2020. Advisors’ views are broadly similar.
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Of those students changing their plans, 55% intend to switch their chosen university, while 42% plan to change their destination country.
- When asked if and how their top ranked destination country had changed, compared to their original pre-COVID-19 plan, student responses suggest a shift away from traditionally popular host destinations such as UK, USA and Canada, towards host destinations closer to home - Australia, India, Sweden, Thailand, South Africa and others.
- The United States has been the most adversely affected amongst destinations, experiencing a 71% drop (compared to students’ pre-COVID-19 plans).
- Other traditionally popular host destinations have also seen steep declines, including the United Kingdom (-56%) and Canada (-58%).
- While university advisors believe travel difficulties and visa challenges will have the greatest impact on students’ plans, students’ greatest concern is about the quality of their first year academic experience.
2021 graduating cohort:**
- The year on year swing in destination interest shows a small, but visible decline in the popularity of the USA and Canada as study destinations and a dramatic year on year decrease in the popularity of Hong Kong, with 50%+ fewer students shortlisting a single university in the region.
- In terms of raw or absolute numbers, however, the USA, UK and Canada still dominate.
- The decision-making data analysed year to date for the 2021 graduating cohort seems to imply that although there has clearly been an impact, traditionally popular host destinations may still have time to recover in the eyes of this next graduating cohort.
Lucy Stonehill, CEO of BridgeU, said, “Based on the analysis we’ve conducted, looking into BridgeU student decision-making data and emerging patterns across two different year groups, the graduating class of 2020 and 2021 respectively, it is clear that the impact of COVID-19 has been felt and will continue to be felt. However, if there is a lesson to be learned from Hong Kong, a region that has otherwise done an impressive job at containing the spread of COVID-19, it is, perhaps, that the impact of geopolitics may outlast the impact of the pandemic.”
One BridgeU high school counselor from a school in Japan noted, “USA used to be a very popular destination; however, besides COVID-19, now the political situation is scaring students and parents so much. Politics in the USA (is) really affecting the whole picture of the USA.”
*Results from a BridgeU survey conducted by email between June 22-23 2020 of 805 high school students from 83 countries and 65 university & careers advisors from 41 countries.
**Results are based on BridgeU platform and usage data analysing student destination interest (proxied by universities and courses ‘shortlisted’ by students using the BridgeU guidance platform). Data from February to June 2020 shortlists for students graduating in 2021 were compared to the same dataset (February to June 2019 shortlists) for students graduating in 2020. In all, the results are based on 198,000 shortlisted courses/universities from 16,900 students across the two matriculating year groups.
About BridgeU:
BridgeU is the market leading provider of university and careers guidance services for international or globally-minded secondary schools. Today, BridgeU partners with secondary schools in over 300 cities, across 119 countries. BridgeU also works with leading universities, helping them to connect with the largest community of international schools available on one platform.
