Prospective overseas students ‘most concerned about finance’

Prospective international students’ biggest concern about studying overseas is access to funding, while they are more worried about health and safety now than they were six months ago, according to Times Higher Education research.

A survey of 165 prospective international students, conducted in January by THE’s consultancy team, found that 64 per cent of respondents said that the availability of funding or scholarships was a major concern for them and their study plans, with 51 per cent saying they were more concerned about this now than they had been six months ago, while 59 per cent cited employment prospects after graduating.

The majority of respondents also said that the overall student experience (58 per cent), health and safety (56 per cent) and the quality of online learning (56 per cent) were major concerns.

However, most prospective students did not indicate that they were any more concerned about the student experience or the quality of online learning than they had been earlier in the pandemic. In contrast, 56 per cent of respondents said they were more concerned about health and safety now than six months ago.

Questions submitted by prospective international students at THE Student events also seem to suggest that finance has become an increasing concern. In June, the majority of questions related to visas, while health-related queries were most common in November. Funding-related concerns were the most prevalent in September, October and December.

Meanwhile, on 19 January, Matt Durnin, global head of insights and consultancy at the British Council, predicted that financial worries were likely to overtake health as the primary concern for international students in the next 12 months, due to the impact of a global recession on students’ personal finances. However, he said that there would be vast differences by country.

Mark Tweddle, senior higher education consultant at THE, said the survey suggests that the different stages of the pandemic were having a “yo-yo effect” on prospective international students’ concerns.

“Health appeared to be the main concern at the start of the pandemic, but as things started to get more normal during the summer the focus turned to how they could fund their study and where they would go. Now that we’re in another wave of the virus, with new variants, health concerns seem to be coming to the fore again,” he said.

Mr Tweddle added that the fact that the top concern was funding and scholarships suggested that students were still hoping to study abroad and that they were “prepared to live with the fact that universities are not going to be able to provide a normal student experience” during the crisis.

ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com

If you would like to discuss the results of this survey further or find out more about THE’s student panel, please contact Mark Tweddle at Mark.Tweddle@timeshighereducation.com.