Impact of COVID–19 on Education in Europe

The Coronavirus (COVID – 19) seems to have woefully set the wave for panic around the globe including the higher education abroad for an upcoming intake of ‘Winter 2020’. Nevertheless, this has even impacted European Countries. Students are now uncertain with regards to their further plans. In spite of these struggles, universities are taking immediate actions to ensure the wellbeing of their students. Most importantly they are also giving current semester students an option of Online Classes, One-on-One classes for those who are finding it difficult to cope up with normal online classes and all of these are done to ensure that current students are not left out. If you are planning to join the upcoming intakes, Universities in Europe have taken necessary measures for the same as well.

Let’s have a closer look at the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on some countries in Europe.

Germany

• As per the German Embassy, if Visas of foreign nationals are expiring or have expired during the period of lockdown, they would be extended till midnight of 3rd May 2020
• The Visa Section of German Embassy and VFS are closed until further notice
• Couple of German Universities have already started their current semester in online mode and others have postponed their start of Summer intake to early May 
• Currently no In-Person classes are conducted anywhere in Germany
• Delay in commencing of the Winter 2020 intake is expected

United Kingdom

• A couple of universities in the United Kingdom have suspended In-Person teaching
• The UK government is providing free extension for those whose immigration permission is expiring between 24 January 2020 and 31 May 2020
• There would not be any requirement for CAS Letter for Distance Learning and international students who will be taking classes from outside the UK
• The UK Government has supported Wales to tackle the issue of Coronavirus with a funding of about £2 Billion
• The UK Government will be supporting the firms with grants, which will help them pay the wages of more than a million people
• Universities are being asked not to change their offers to students for the time being to maintain stability by Universities Minister Michelle Donelan.
• The Government has announced additional funding for Universities to deal with challenges, high quality resources and financial costs for the coronavirus outbreak.

Sweden

• Applications for Winter 2020 have already closed on 15 January 2020. Admissions decisions were made in first and second week of April 2020 as stated by Swedish Universities
• No exceptions made for the initial tuition deposit. Admitted students at Universities in Sweden need to follow the date of payment as instructed by the Universities
• If due to Corona Pandemic, students are unable to file their residence permit then they might get tuition deposit refund from the University

Netherlands

• Some Universities in Netherlands have asked the students to submit the financial documents to start processing their Visa formalities
• They are moving ahead as planned and any further changes with respect to the start date for Winter 2020 intake will be informed at a later point of time

France, Spain and Italy

• These European Countries are under restrictive lockdown. No individual is permitted to leave their house unless extremely urgent
• Universities are taking utmost care of international students and no official statements regarding the upcoming semesters have been given
• Lockdown will continue in these countries until further notice

Denmark

• One of the European Countries where the active cases for Corona are extremely less is Denmark
• Universities are following the planned schedule for Winter 2020 intake.
• With regards to the program start date universities haven’t released any updates yet

In a nutshell, all European Embassies are closed until further notice. Inspite of this all the universities are working diligently to put things back in place. Most of these Universities are going as per their planned schedule for Winter 2020 intake and probably by the end of May 2020 we expect to receive more clarity regarding the schedule.

Akshay Bhandari

Lead Counselor (Europe) and Trainer

Imperial Overseas Education Consultants