The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on International Students at UNC-Chapel Hill
For decades, the United States has led the world in higher education and become the most popular destination for international students across the globe. International students who choose to study in the United States bring cultural ideas and economic prosperity to the country’s shores; however, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has disrupted international students’ education, making it more difficult for them to retain a normal college experience. The graphic to the left shows that there has been a decline of international students in the U.S. since the 2019-20 school year, and the number of enrolled international students is still decreasing in the 2020-21 school year.
The impact of the global pandemic is still ongoing even though international students are flocking to campuses around the world for their offline education in the fall 2021 academic semester. Jerry Xu, a sophomore international student from China at UNC-Chapel Hill, is one of the international students who has traveled back to the campus since UNC-CH reopens in-person for the fall semester.
Although all students at UNC-CH were required to be on campus on Aug. 18 for the fall 2021 semester, various international students have taken different choices because of travel restrictions, limited access to U.S. embassies and personal safety considerations. Some spent a week coming back from thousands of miles away like Xu; some chose to stay in their home countries and take online classes; others decided to have a gap year.
International Students at UNC-CH
International students constitute an essential part of UNC-CH, and they bring new perspectives or experiences to the school. According to UNC Global, UNC-CH enrolled 2,400 international students from 106 countries as of Fall 2019 with the majority of them coming from China, India, and South Korea. As reported by the College Factual, over the last several years, the total international population of students on campus has grown at an average rate of 4.8%. China is the largest contributor to this growth, with an estimated total of 719 students.
While the total population of international students has increased at UNC-CH, the pandemic has affected the enrollment of new international students. One of the primary causes for the decline of enrollment is the chaos and upheaval in general lives due to COVID-19 pandemic. The “return to normal” announcement of the university leaves international students concerned about the delta variant and their health conditions on campus. For instance, Xu said he and his family are worried that the delta variant will lead to a surge of breakthrough cases and COVID-19 clusters on campus. He also expressed the feeling that there are cultural differences existed between the U.S. and his home country China. “Most Americans do not take the coronavirus seriously as the Chinese do,” Xu said. “I knew some international students had declined their offers to stay in China because of the different attitudes.”
Measures to Control the COVID-19 on Campus
In order to eliminate the effect of COVID-19 and ensure a safe semester, UNC-CH has taken updated community standards since August 6, 2021. Members of the Carolina community should get vaccinated, wear a mask and practice healthy habits on campus. All unvaccinated members are required to participate in the Carolina Together Testing Program once weekly, and people who have identified symptoms would be required to participate in COVID-19 contact tracing and quarantine. The graphic on the right demonstrates the updated COVID-19 situation since the fall 2021 semester and the detailed implementation of the community standards.
“UNC has definitely taken effective measures and precautions in place since the fall semester, but I hope the university could employ more strict standards,” Xu said. “I’m seeing tons of people at frat court and large gatherings still happening on campus.”
College Experience in the Shadow of the Pandemic
Xu has been impacted by the pandemic since his first year of college like his counterparts around the world. He had his first in-person class as a college student when UNC-CH started the fall semester on Aug. 18, 2021.
“After a year of online classes with jet lag, I am so glad to get back and take normal classes on campus,” Xu said. “I finally have chances to make up my first-year campus experience.”
As Xu spent a year taking online classes and a semester at Suzhou University in China for the go local program, he pointed some special opportunities offered due to the global pandemic. He has benefited from the combined education of UNC-CH and a Chinese university, which allowed him to experience a multi-cultural and diverse campus environment. Moreover, being able to stay a year with his family in China during the pandemic offered him emotional support and comfort.
However, there were still tremendous negative impacts brought to his life because of the pandemic. The round-the-clock online classes left him physically and mentally exhausted, through which he took a lot of effort to adjust the tension of learning at the beginning of the fall semester. A missing in-person year at UNC-CH made him feel like a first-year student who was unfamiliar with the campus environment. He was unable to enjoy the resources and participate in many extracurricular activities on campus as well.
Click on the video below to learn more about Xu’s experience during COVID-19 crisis and his perspective:
In the end, the impact of COVID-19 on international students has unraveled uncertainty around the future of student mobility and education decisions. The lived-in experiences of students at UNC-CH could provide great insights for thought on how to achieve internationalization goals in a post-COVID-19 world.
