Indian students jittery over pro-Palestine protests in US universities

With pro-Palestine protests escalating across university campuses in the US, Indian students seeking admission there and their parents are jittery, and if the agitation continues to spread, it could impact the number of students taking admission in the US this fall.

For now, there is no change of plans, executives at study abroad platforms told ET. However, students do not want to go all the way to the US for online classes, experts said.

"The recent turn of events has led to apprehensions amongst students and parents regarding physical safety, security and learning effectiveness, given the announcement by a number of universities to go online for the next semester," said Rohin Kapoor, partner at business management and consulting firm BDO India. "As a result, the number of applications is likely to drop in the summer and fall intake while interest in alternative education destinations will increase," he said.

The fall intake takes place during September to December. Due to the higher number of seats and scholarships on offer, a majority of Indian students prefer to apply during fall intake.
Currently, there are over 300,000 Indian students enrolled across US colleges in various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Some colleges like Columbia University have announced switching to online classes for the next few months.

"Parents are very clear that they do not want their kids to attend zoom classes after getting to the US... They are all going for the full immersive experience," Akshay Chaturvedi, founder and CEO of study abroad platform Leverage Edu, told ET.

Executives at rival consultancies including IDP Education, Collegify and Yocket shared similar thoughts.

"Parents of those students who plan to go to the US in the upcoming fall intake are worried about the classes with the ongoing protests," said Piyush Kumar, regional director - South Asia and Mauritius at IDP Education.

IDP, which conducts a pre-departure workshop for students, is now advising students not to indulge in any activity that could jeopardise their student visa and hamper their academic pursuits, he said.

Protests and disruptions have recently been reported at campuses including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University (which recently cancelled the graduation ceremony), University of California, and Yale, among others. In some institutes, protests have even led to arrests and raids, according to news reports.

"If protests and unrest increase, students will back out," said Adarsh Khandelwal, cofounder of Collegify. "It is advisable for students to plan for an alternate course of action just in case this does not work out."

Mostly, parents of students heading to the US for the first time are more anxious, experts said.

Source:-  Economic Times