Universities worldwide have not halted enrollment of students despite the COVID-19 pandemic and are expecting that the next intake in fall will go as planned, Olga Kuzina, a representative of the Moscow-based STAR Academy, which organizes education and exchange programs abroad, told Sputnik in an interview
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th April, 2020) Universities worldwide have not halted enrollment of students despite the COVID-19 pandemic and are expecting that the next intake in fall will go as planned, Olga Kuzina, a representative of the Moscow-based STAR academy, which organizes education and exchange programs abroad, told Sputnik in an interview.
"Enrollment of students to foreign universities has not stopped even for a minute, and we are preparing for a new intake in all countries in fall. Admission offices are working from home, many universities agree to simplify paper requirements, review scanned copies of documents, accept online language testing in case quarantine is imposed in a student's country and certificates cannot be handed over offline," Kuzina, the head of Higher Education Department at the company, said.
However, according to her, students could face troubles with visas or entering the country in which they are going to study if the lockdown is not lifted by the start of the new academic year.
"Students understand that there may be problems with obtaining visas because consulates of all countries are closed and will be closed before the quarantine is lifted in Russia, and one can only guess when it will happen. More trouble could arise if a country, where a student is going to study, will not open its borders by September. In this case, universities offer two fallback options: either start studying online during the first semester, and arrive by the start of the second one, or shift the start of studies to the winter semester," Kuzina said.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, over 2 million people have been infected with the novel coronavirus worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.
