Is this a good time to study abroad?

By Padma Sampath on June 20, 2020 in COVID19, Education

Hello, Study Abroad Aspirants…

Hope you are doing well….
Many of my students have been asking this question and I thought of writing an article on the same.

Amidst COVID19 crisis, is this a good time for graduates to study abroad?

The answer is ‘Yes’. There are two categories of study abroad aspirants; students who are in the final year of graduation looking to do their Master’s/Ph.D. abroad and Working students who are aspiring to study abroad and hence have further career growth.

Let us consider the current job outlook for fresh graduates. Owing to COVID19, many companies in India have huge layoffs making the unemployment rate scale up to higher. Many employees’ salaries have also been reduced to half. Experts estimate that it is unlikely for the job market to reopen until at least the first quarter of 2021. Even then, fresh graduates have to compete with experienced professionals who have lost jobs due to the COVID crisis in entry-level jobs. For working students too, there are not many chances for a career growth/pay hike for the next few years, as many companies have incurred huge losses due to lockdown and those who lost jobs due to layoffs would be willing to get hired for lesser pay.

On the other hand, the number of student matriculations to Fall 2020/Spring 2021 is estimated to decrease compared to that of previous years, owing to health and finance-related apprehensions of the COVID effect. Hence, universities worldwide had relaxed their admission criteria. So, for fresh graduates, it is a good time to invest in higher education abroad, especially for the ones having a marginal academic profile. Considering an average program duration of 1.5- 2 years, by the time one graduate from the Master’s program (if one starts his/her course in 2021), there are high chances that the job scenario throughout the world to resume normalcy.

Also, competition from fellow international students would also likely be lesser than ever before (Simply because, the lesser the international students joining in 2020/2021, the lesser the graduates competing for the job in two years from now).

So, the bottom line is, it is a good time to start your higher education abroad! But, if you are afraid of COVID infection after landing in a foreign country, that is a different scenario and well, situation is not better here too.

Note: Refer https://www.ets.org/gre for more on GRE ®

Wishing you great success!

Please feel free to write to me at info@xledu.in or contact me at +91 7708398974 for any queries.

Regards,
Padmapriya Sampath
Career Counselor, XLEducation

Disclaimer: All views expressed in this article are my own, and I do not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information of this article is strictly at your own risk, and I / the company will not be liable for any losses and damages in connection with the use of the information provided in this article.