Epidemic impacting on academic exchanges
Academic exchanges between China and other countries have been hit by the COVID-19 outbreak as Chinese students who plan to study abroad are facing visa difficulties, while returning students also have to struggle with travel bans and other inconveniences.
An education consultant in Shanghai, who preferred to be named as Hannah, told the Global Times on Wednesday that although they didn’t feel tightening offer issues from overseas universities, Chinese students are worrying about whether they could enrol on time this autumn as processing of US and Australian visas has been suspended.
The US embassy and consulates in China announced the suspension of visa processing on February 3 without specifying when it will be resumed.
Catherine Cao, a junior student in journalism and communication, planned to do some summer research on linguistic analysis in the US to enrich her resume before applying for a PhD program in the fall of 2020. Cao told the Global Times that she is making Plan B: to do a program at her own university, as “US professors may hesitate to issue invitation letters due to visa barriers.”
Australian media also reported that the authorities did not release any visas to Chinese students after a travel ban was announced on February 1, barring people who have been to China in past two weeks from entering the country except citizens and permanent residence holders.
Several Chinese PhD candidates and visiting scholars who have obtained offers from Australian universities said their visas have been delayed for several months before, due to “unknown reasons.” Now the suspension of the visa issue just added fuel to their anxiety.
They are now planning to start a petition to enquire about visa issues.
“The Australian government should not stop all student visa processes even if the students are in good health conditions and haven’t travelled to Hubei Province, where the virus originated from, during the past month,” a PhD candidate who preferred not be named told the Global Times.
Dai Ziquan, after returning to Singapore, quarantined himself for two weeks at a hotel at his own expense, before resuming work at an architecture lab at the National University of Singapore as a post-doctorate research fellow.