Huge number of foreign students are dropping out of universities due to outbreak of pandemic Corona virus (COVID – 19). The dropping out the students from universities expect to suffer losses. Foreign students have already cancelled their studies as the impact of Corona Virus may be like the hitting the educational sectors with a tsunami. Some of the universities have already expecting to lose more than 100 millions.
Mostly the prestigious universities are greatly impacted and are planning for 80-100% reduction in their foreign students. As this sector is stroke by massive drop in number of international students, the accommodation deals and conference income, they are making a plea to the government for a cash injection of billions of pounds to get rid of the crisis.
Many universities from UK have already line up the online courses for the next year. Similarly, many institutions have already borrowed heavily for the payment made for introducing new and attractive faculties targeting for overseas students.
Andrew Connors, head of higher education at Lloyds Banking Group, said the crisis has felt “less like a perfect storm and more like a tsunami hitting the sector”. Banks have not had urgent requests from universities, as big financial hits are expected later in the year. However, he said that “while the immediate impact we are seeing in the sector is slower, the overall impact of Covid-19 is potentially deeper and longer”.
There is the great significance of UK universities in the economy, so he expects banks will offer loans wherever needed. However, he warns, “I worked through the financial crisis of 2007/08 and it does not compare in my experience to what we are witnessing now.”
He also adds that the crisis has stroke almost all the businesses in some form and shape and many well setup business organizations are now fighting for the survival.
Universities UK, the industry body, has proposed a series of measures to the government to double research funding and offer emergency loans to troubled institutions, as well as placing a cap on the number of undergraduates many institutions can recruit in 2020-21.
Nick Hillman, Hepi’s chief, cautioned that universities just had constrained choices to reduce their expenses. There are things they can do to relieve the effect, for example, doing everything they can to keep flowing of students, doing less research, looking at their staffing and persuading home final year students to remain on for postgraduate study. Yet, some were in financial challenges even before the present crisis.