Yang Zekun
Since she received offers from two universities in the United Kingdom in January, Ma Shuyuan’s mood has been like a roller coaster, swinging from excitement and happiness to anxiety and worry.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has affected policies in destination countries for international students, including thousands from China, whose plans to study overseas have been disrupted by the outbreak.
Ma, a senior student in communications at the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, has decided to take a gap year before enrolling at graduate school in the UK, one of the most popular destinations for Chinese students. She has spent two years preparing to study in the country because she loves British culture.
Having applied in September, the 22-year-old received conditional offers from King’s College London and the University of Leeds. She decided to go to KCL, which asked her to submit the grades from her last semester and her scores from the International English Language Testing System.
“At first, I was worried that no universities would make offers, as a friend had already received some. I was happy when I got my offers, but then the pandemic broke out and I started to worry about whether I could go to the UK on time and safely,” Ma said.
Students applying for universities overseas need to meet various requirements, including specific grade-point averages, good grades in IELTS or the Test of English as a Foreign Language, and other factors such as extracurricular activities.
Initially, Ma’s visa application and registration for the IELTS exam were affected by epidemic prevention and control measures, because people had been advised to avoid large gatherings.
Then, the tests for IELTS and TOEFL, along with the Graduate Record Examination and the Graduate Management Admissions Test, were canceled on the Chinese mainland in February, the National Education Examinations Authority said.
Because the exam cancelations were reviewed on a monthly basis, Ma attempted to register for the IELTS test four times from February to May.
She had planned to take language classes at KCL, so she would have to pay extra fees before joining her graduate course. The deadline to register for the class was early last month, but as she hadn’t received her visa she didn’t make it.
She finished her dissertation defense in late May, and her grades for the last semester and bachelor’s degree were scheduled to be released last month.
However, the discovery of some new cases of COVID-19 in Beijing delayed the process, so she did not receive her grades until early this month.
Her graduation certificate will be mailed to her in the coming weeks, and her application to KCL, asking to postpone her course for one year, will be dealt with sometime after July 15.
Ma’s friends who have also received offers from schools overseas are waiting to see if the epidemic may ease in the second half of the year. Once underway, they want to finish their studies as quickly as possible, often by taking online courses, and find jobs.
“I have no plans to take online courses, as I want to experience British culture in person. My favorite band — Queen — the Sherlock Holmes novels and TV series and Harry Potter are all there. The cultural factor played an important role when I decided to study in the country,” Ma said.
She wants to find a job or internship during her gap year, but her lack of work experience has frustrated her plans. Despite sending her resume to more than 10 companies, she has received no replies.
“The epidemic has affected the overall market and many companies are in a downturn. I want to find internships related to e-commerce, but the companies all want to recruit full-time employees. I must find something to do; otherwise, I may waste the year,” she said.
Ma said that students like her who planned to study abroad paid great attention to improving their GPA and scores in the IELTS or TOEFL exams during their undergraduate days.
As a result, they missed many internship opportunities as they were less competitive than graduates who didn’t plan to study abroad and had more work experience.
“I had considered finding a job after finishing my graduate studies in a year or so, but I have to find a job now,” she said.
According to the Ministry of Education, the number of new university graduates nationwide will reach 8.74 million this year, a rise of 400,000 from last year, and solving the employment problem has been high on the government’s agenda.
Kang Xinrui, a senior student at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, has received six offers from universities in the United States.
The 22-year-old wants to study at New York University, but she is planning to take a break of six months or a year in the hope the pandemic situation in the US will improve.
She said visa application interviews at the US embassy in Beijing are fully booked until December, so she has no chance of arriving in the country in late August in time to complete the enrollment process.
Instead, she is looking for an internship or a full-time job related to software development — the subject she will study in the US — but like Ma she has not received replies from her preferred companies.
She had the opportunity to be recommended for graduate studies at