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Research suggests UK-bound Chinese students have reservations about starting their course
Chinese students are worried that the measures taken by the UK government in response to the Covid-19 pandemic fail to match those taken in their native country, research has found.
Researchers at the University of Manchester interviewed 19 student recruitment agents based in nine Chinese cities, and found that a “key concern expressed by applicants and their parents was about safety in the UK”.
“In particular, applicants and parents expressed concerns to agents about whether the UK government was taking strong enough measures to contain the pandemic compared to the actions that were taken by the Chinese government,” the researchers write in the paper—Chinese International Student Recruitment during the COVID-19 Crisis: Education agents’ practices and reflections.
Fears were also expressed to agents about the coronavirus death toll and the number of confirmed cases in the UK.
“This was influenced by social media reports in China and through other international outlets, where it was reported that not all people in the UK were following social-distancing guidance or wearing masks in public,” the researchers found.
“As such, agents perceived anxiety from applicants and their parents about whether it was safe to study in the UK.”
One participant said it was the idea of a “herd immunity” approach that “really scared most of my students and their parents as well as me in the middle of March”. The interviews took place in May this year.
Ying Yang, a doctoral researcher at the University of Manchester and co-author of the report, said “overwhelming uncertainties” in the student recruitment process had emerged as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
Speaking at a seminar on the research hosted by the Campaign for Global Higher Education on 22 July, she added that agents had a “serious need” for timely information from universities regarding their plans for the 2020-21 academic year, particularly on issues such as the format of courses, visa conditions and tuition fee levels.
Jenna Mittelmeier, a lecturer in international education at Manchester and another report co-author, added that while the research suggested that students held concerns about UK study, most who held offers to study abroad still intended to do so.
The “caveat”, she said, was that many had expressed “caution about the containment of the virus and the pandemic situation in the UK”.
Elsewhere, the research details six steps that UK universities should consider taking if they wish to mitigate the damage that the Covid-19 outbreak might do to Chinese student recruitment.
These include ensuring “open communication” with education agents and applicants, releasing information about their “explicit plan for the 2020-21 academic year” as soon as possible, and deferring the opening date of programmes to “ensure that international students will be able to take on-campus face-to- face courses in a safe and healthy environment”.
Institutions should also consider offering flexible start options and think about reducing tuition fees for courses delivered fully or partially online, the research found.