Odisha News Today Bureau:
Education is something that will not stop, whether it is for foreign or Indian Universities, as the institutes prefer to see that the students come back to the campus and resume in-class learning. The demand for foreign universities has gone up significantly after the second wave of COVID-19 subsided. Students have started going back to their campuses as the universities have opened up and are conducting classes via a hybrid model of both online and offline classes. Since most students and staff have been vaccinated, the universities are slowly resuming back to their normal routine.
Speaking on the demand of students for studying abroad, Ms. Sunita Bose, Founder, Let’s Talk said, “I cannot comment on the exact number of students that are going to foreign universities this year, but the demand has suddenly shot up as compared to last year. The number of students that we are advising, have increased by over 80%. Our students at Let’s Talk are very keen on getting an overseas education because of the global opportunities that they get post graduating. We have received a lot of enquiries from students and parents alike in the last few months for the upcoming session starting from September 2021. Interestingly, India has seen the highest number of student visa applications in recent years and we expect it to increase year on year.”
2020 was a bad year for the overseas education industry but yes, the numbers are going up. The universities worked hard to switch to the online method of teaching and make it more interactive and interesting, because they knew that this wad something which was outside the comfort zone of their students.
Speaking about their organization Ms. Sunita Bose further added, “Let’s Talk is an education consultancy based out of Kolkata, engaged in providing career counseling and admissions guidance to students who are seeking a college education in India and abroad. For the past 20 years, we have helped over 4,000 students get admitted in their programs of choice in the best universities around the globe. We provide a personalized global education guide as every student’s needs and wants are unique, and so is our counseling. We choose the best-suited country as a study destination and 1) provide innumerable high-ranking university options 2) take care of the applications and other documentation 3) provide assistance in finding accommodation 4) assist in visa applications 5) provide guidance for scholarship applications. We have expertise in helping students get admitted into universities primarily in India, UK, USA, Canada, Hong Kong, and Singapore.”
Speaking about Odisha Ms. Sudakshina Banerjee, Head eastern India, Let’s Talk said, “Odisha has become a student hub now and we see students from all over the country even abroad coming to Orissa to study. Odisha did stand a very good chance, it has become a student hub, we have been coming here to Bhubaneswar for a long time, and we are constantly seeing improvements in the state so yes, it is a good place for the students to study, we are seeing the no of students and colleges that are coming up and it has to move for a quite some time now, it has become a student hub. We also see a high demand for foreign universities among the students from Odisha.”
The pandemic did change the phase of education, from the time the pandemic has struck the entire industry has been paralyzed. But the change was that it took some time for the education industry to cope with it, and this is a time technology came into use, and everyone started learning how to cope with it through webinars and zoom, but it has been a difficult time, the teachers were not equipped to teach, the children were not equipped to learn this way and to be glued to places and just do classes, it was a very difficult time, and total confusion all around.