The Covid-19 pandemic’s impacts on Chinese students who study abroad
The Covid-19 pandemic not only seriously affects the world economy, but also significantly threatens the higher education sector. Covid-19 fears are putting off Chinese students from UK and those who study in the UK faces various problems such as feeling isolated, visa issue, and struggling with E-learning.
Recently, I talked to three Chinese students who are studying in the UK. From the interviews, I learnt that Chinese international students are struggling with the COVID-19 and feel that the pandemic has significantly influenced their university study and personal life.
‘All of our classes and exams have been moved online. The school’s online examination system was very difficult to use, and I take a wrong paper in the mid-term exam.’
-Xin, a final year student of university of Westminster
‘I studied in network class during the end of my undergraduate course. Although E-learning is flexible and convenient, I feel isolated and I do miss the days when I could interact with other university mates and teachers.’
-Manxi, an undergraduate student from University of Southampton
‘I was kinda freaked out because many of my friends were punched in the street and being called coronavirus just because they were wearing the mask. I felt isolated with the racism.’
-Wang, a postgraduate student from LSE
UK has always been an attractive destination for international students. Studying-in-UK organisation reports that from the year 2000/01 to 2017/18, the number of international students in the UK increased from 216,565 to 458,520. Meanwhile, the Higher Education Statistics Agency’s statistics show that compared with other Non-EU students, China sends more students to the UK. Since international students’ tuition fees are nearly two or three times higher than domestic students, these Chinese students profoundly contribute to British universities’ income, which is about £4 billion each year, estimated by Sean Coughlan, a BBC News correspondent.
Given the importance of Chinese students to UK’s higher education sector, the Covid-19 pandemic has affected Chinese students in different ways. Firstly, many students and parents are concerned with the safety, which has decreased their willingness to study in the UK at a risky time. With China effectively controlling the virus, the infected cases and death rate remains high in the UK. The GOV.UK, which is an official website of UK government, shows that every day over 20,000 people are tested positive and more than 500 people die because of the COVID-19. As one of the countries which show highest death toll, a large number of Chinese parents are hesitating about sending their children to UK. A survey conducted by the British Council shows that among 8,500 Chinese students who had applied to study in the UK in 2020, 22% of students said that they were likely to cancel their study plans.
Safety issue are not only caused by the health concern, but also caused by racism occurred over Chinese international students. China’s Wuhan was the first place where COVID-19 was found, which led to a result that fear of illness caused ethnic discrimination on Chinese students in the UK. Much news reported that at the beginning of the pandemic, a lot of Asian students, especially Chinese students were attacked for wearing a mask in the UK. Even now, if searching on Twitter, abusive twits can be found, which claim that UK should ban Chinese students.
Finally, to control the spread of Covid-19, UK government announced a lockdown policy and requires universities to temporarily close. To ensure students’ learning and to protect them from virus, most of UK universities’ teaching have moved online. While some scholars such as Dimah AI-Fraihat from University of Warwick believe that the flexibility and convenience of E-learning can improve students’ learning, journalist Francois Cleophas identified several disadvantages of E-learning, which include limited feedbacks to students, lack of face-to-face communication, as well as social isolation problem. In addition, in an interview conducted by CBS News with international students, many Chinese students claimed that ‘we pay much money to study in the UK, but now we have to stay at home and feel no cultural experience in the university life’.
As the COVID-19 is still spreading, the crucial problems faced by Chinese international students raise attention of UK’s policy maker and higher educational sector. Given the fact that international students not only contribute to UK’s economy, but also directly influence British universities’ income, their concerns should be effectively addressed. On one hand, more proactive policies should be developed to eliminate racial discrimination. On the other hand, British’s higher educational institutions should optimize their curriculum arrangement so that problems caused by remote learning can be alleviated. As students who are at immigration status and study far away from home countries, more support should be given to not only Chinese international students, but all international students who may suffer similar problems.
References
Al-Fraihat, D., Joy, M., & Sinclair, J. (2020). Evaluating E-learning systems success: An empirical study. Computers in Human Behavior, 102, 67–86.
Baker. S. (2020) More than half of Chinese students ‘could still cancel UK study plans’. Available at: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/more-half-chinese-students-could-still-cancel-uk-study-plans
CBS News (2020) All-remote learning is failing many students all across the country: “These children are struggling”. Available at: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-pandemic-students-grades-suffering-all-remote-learning/
Cleophas. F. (2020) Covid-19 pandemic highlights challenges of online teaching and learning. Available at: https://mg.co.za/education/2020-08-06-covid-19-pandemic-highlights-challenges-of-online-teaching-and-learning/
GOV.UK (2020) UK Summary. Available at:https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
Higher Education Statistics Agency (2020) Where do HE students come from? Available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/where-from
Coughlan. S. (2020) Covid fears putting off Chinese students from UK. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/education-53416337
Study-in-UK (2020) International Student Statistics in UK 2020. Available at: https://www.studying-in-uk.org/international-student-statistics-in-uk/
YouTube (2020) Britain’s Chinese community faces racism over coronavirus outbreak. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoTpOwFx5u8
Appendix 1: Interviews
Interviewee 1: Xin, 3/12/2020, Face to Face, 5 Mins.
1) Please briefly introduced yourself (e.g. the country you study, undergraduate or postgraduate student, age)
I am a year 3 student at university of Westminster. I am 22 years old. I am from China but now I am in the London.
2) Has the Covid-19 affected your visa application or extension? How?
To be honest, it didn’t affect my visa because I got a three-year visa in my first year, but I heard that many students meet the visa problems such as difficulty to apply or extend visa.
3) How has the Covid-19 affected your university study?
Of course. All of our classes and exams have been moved online. The school’s online examination system was very difficult to use, and I take a wrong paper in the mid-term exam. Also, I feel less motivated to take E-learning because there is no face-to-face interaction with teachers, and I think feedback offered by teachers are also less than traditional classroom lectures.
4) What about Covid-19’s impacts on your personal life?
I can’t go out as often as before. Now I go out to buy the necessities of life. I don’t really enjoy such feeling because I really feel isolated. I planned to take some travels when I’m still studying the UK to better learn British culture, but now all the plans are canceled.
Interviewee 2: Manxi, 4/12/2020, by WeChat, 5 Mins.
1) Please briefly introduced yourself (e.g., the country you study, undergraduate or postgraduate student, age)
My name is Manxi, I am an undergraduate student from Taiwan and my nationality is Chinese.
2) Has the Covid-19 affected your visa application or extension? How?
Not really. I did my postgraduate application well-off. I think UK government offers good solutions to international students regarding to our visa. For example, students’ visa would not be canceled if they could not extend visa due to the virus.
3) How has the Covid-19 affected your university study?
I studied in network class during the end of my undergraduate course. Although E-learning is flexible and convenient, I feel isolated and I do miss the days when I could interact with other university mates or teachers. In addition, I am a person who lacks of good self-directed skill so sometimes I did fail to manage my time to attend lectures on time.
4) What about Covid-19’s impacts on your personal life?
I spent more time at home and bought everything online. China now controls the virus very well and from the news and conversations with family and friends, I know that people in China live normally and I really hope that our life in the UK can get right quickly.
Interviewee 3. Wang, 4/12/2020, by WeChat, 5 Mins.
1) Please briefly introduced yourself (e.g. the country you study, undergraduate or postgraduate student, age)
Kunyu Wang, 22, a postgraduate student in the UK and currently studying Global Media and Communications in LSE.
2) Has the Covid-19 affected your visa application or extension? How?
Yes for sure. Visa extensions for those unable to back to the UK because of coronavirus have been extended to 90 days (the temporary visa on passport). This new policy really facilitates us — students who find difficult to arrive in the UK because of travel restrictions.
3) How has the Covid-19 affected your university study?
To be honest I’m so done with all of online stuff and I believe we are all struggling with it, as students, as lecturers. I have been in online sessions for the whole Michaelmas Term but hopefully back to in person teaching next term. Even though remote learning is very convenient, I feel less engage with the learning. Also, since I’m a postgraduate study and my university life in the UK is only 1 year. The outbreak of COVID-19 has negatively affected by experience of studying in the UK.
4) What about Covid-19’s impacts on your personal life?
I still remember at the very beginning of the pandemic, I told my course leader that I was kinda freaked out because many of my friends were punched in the street and being called coronavirus just because they were wearing the mask. I felt isolated with the racism and hate crime here in the UK. And that’s the first time I get this kind of feeling in the past few years…
