Australia has the 4th largest hub for students for study purposes which positively affects its economy. According to the data of 2019, it was seen that a total of 758,154 international students were admitted to Australian Universities. Covid-19 drastically affected almost every country and Australia was no exception for that, many families, students got affected by it. Some people did make a benefit of this opportunity by learning some new skills and working on their hobbies.

Many students got stuck away from their homes and families, with no proper sources. Many lost their jobs and source of income and some faced the Covid-19 pandemic all alone. Covid-19 impacted the students in many ways and affected the future of many of them as well. The problems international students faced are; –

Financial Issues Faced Over Closure Of Country

At the start of the Covid-19 situation in 2019, 12% of people were working a few more hours in fear of closure of the country and working places. But at the same time, 24% of people were working fewer hours than average in fear of coming in contact with Covid-19. By May 2020, the unemployment rate in Australia had risen by around 6.2%, this happened due to the closure of 594,300 jobs in total in the country.

 As borders were closed many international students got stuck in Australia with no financial earning option, away from family. Some got homeless or suffered without food. As the students were from different countries, there wasn’t much help from the Australian government as well. Later some donations and budgets were created for such students.

Racism

As Covid-19 arose in China and got spread by people traveling abroad. The same happened with Australia, students from China when they flew back to Australia, were the cause of initial cases there. This made local students and people get more racist against people from China and Asia. Racism was always present there but due to this situation, it increased even more.

In June 2020 when things started to open back up, and all the international students from Asia returned, people started calling them by the term “Corona” and the situation went this bad. Some even stopped visiting the academic center because of the racism they were facing on the campus and in public. In starting off the pandemic even the government took some racist steps where international students were excluded from the important emergency services.

Loss Of Studies

In the initial stage of Covid-19, students were made to return to their countries and online classes have opted for the mode of education. It was the best option for that condition. It had many issues at the same time like; –

1. The time difference was one of the biggest issues, as many international students were made to attend classes late at night. Because classes were going on according to the Australian time.
2. There was no proper one-to-one engagement between the faculty staff and the students. This turned out into a reduced academic performance of the students.
3. Teachers weren’t able to properly focus on the progress of each student compared to the real-time class.
4. There were some technical issues at the same time, some weren’t that well equipped in their home countries to attend proper classes like others.

Even after the opening of the country in June 2020, many students were stuck in their home countries due to the closure of international borders. And they were made to attend online classes from there. It affected the progress as well, as most of them were providing for their fees by the scholarship money. It created tension among students for getting scholarships.

Psychological Issues

Many surveys were made to understand the progress of students because of the Covid-19. It was seen that most of the international students were facing some kind of psychological issues because of ongoing conditions. The common issues seen were

●       Anxiety

●       Depression

●       Fear of Contamination

●       Economic loss fear

●       Xenophobia

●       Compulsive Behavior

●       Traumatic Stress Symptoms

The negative effect was quite high and it was due to many reasons like facing continuous racism, bad progress in studies, economic loss (losing jobs and internship opportunities), getting stuck away from family, and much more. After the opening of universities, international students were made to stay in quarantine for 14 days. Few cases were seen where students were stuck in their room without food for days, which made the fear and hopelessness even more.

Wrap Up

As the world is trying to heal from this pandemic, the students are still lost and hopeless with the burden of studies and earning a living to support themselves. Many needed consultation and therapy for recovering from all the challenges they faced. Along with many other things the online study made things worse by piling more work and assignments in the name of self-study. If you are one of them and need help with all those piled assignments, you can look for High Quality Assignment Help. They provide their services at the most affordable prices and provide free consultation for students. So you can receive proper tutoring and guidelines about your mental health and future.