New QS research shows international students remain concerned about the potential impact of COVID-19 variants on their study plans

New research from Quacquarelli Symonds (@QSCorporate), the world’s leading provider of services, analytics, and insights to the global higher education sector, has found that:

• Over three quarters (79%) of prospective international students are concerned about the potential for new variants of COVID-19 to impact their future study plans

• The majority (84%) of prospective international students also feel that governments should be doing more to tackle COVID-19 variants

The data comes from the QS August COVID-19 report, which investigates the factors that are either facilitating or hampering the efforts of international students as they return to studying overseas. The report focuses on how vaccine passports, vaccine rollouts and COVID-19 variants are shaping the study plans of international students. The responses included in the report were collected in July 2021 and over this period, 3,853 prospective international students participated in the survey.

A key observation from the report is that countries that appear to be successfully managing the pandemic and potential variants may see their rate of international students recover quicker than those countries where COVID-19 continues to spread.

Speaking about the latest report, Director of Marketing at QS Paul Raybould said:

“Throughout the pandemic, QS has provided insights into the impact of COVID-19 on international students’ study plans. These latest findings show that its vital that the sector and the UK Government continue to work together to ensure that international students are well informed about the Government’s efforts to tackle and contain COVID-19 variants, so that prospective international students continue to feel reassured about the UK as an international study destination of choice.”