14 March 2022

Crisis often requires the society to transform itself, sometimes in a disruptive manner. The Covid-19 pandemic is one such crisis that’s upending economies and dramatically transforming key sectors, higher education being one of these. Though higher education institutions (HEIs), albeit under pressure, are undergoing radical transformations driven by the need to digitalise learning in record time, challenges exist.

Over 5 million students are enrolled in HEIs outside their home countries (UNESCO, 2020), generating a global economic impact of nearly $300 billion annually. China and India, emerging as the top source countries, constitute almost half of the international students at US universities (UNESCO, 2019). The pandemic has either wiped out this segment or led to deferred admits in the best-case scenario.