Impact of COVID-19 on international students (EMN OECD Inform)

The COVID-19 crisis has impacted the ability of international students to enrol in a HEI abroad and to travel to that country to take up studies. How did EU & OECD countries respond? Did they adapt their admission processes? An answer to these and other questions can be found in the Inform.

The EMN and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have launched a collaboration that will result in a series of 5 Informs on the impact of COVID-19 in different areas of migration in the EU Members States (including Belgium), Norway and the UK.

The second Inform has now been published. It focuses on international students coming to the EU and OECD countries.

A few key findings:

  • Some EU and OECD countries modified or adapted their admission processes at the national level, sometimes in cooperation with HEIs (higher education instituttions);
  • Many countries introduced temporary measures to mitigate the financial impact that COVID-19 is having on international students, for example by increasing maximum working hours, opening access to national funds or through financial programmes managed at the local or HEI level;
  • Typically, international students are allowed to stay in their country of study for a certain period of time after graduating for the purpose of seeking employment or starting a business. However, the pandemic may compromise the international students’ ability to attain such goals. In the timeframe of this Inform, few EU or OECD countries had extended the maximum time allowed on graduate schemes.

The joint EMN / OECD Inform can be found above. 

On 17 September 2020 a webinar was organised about this Inform, which was livestreamed on YouTube. If you have missed the webinar, you can still watch a video of it below.

This Inform is the second of 5 Informs on the impact of COVID-19. Each Inform covers the COVID-19 impact on a different area of migration:

  • residence permits and unemployment (already published, please click here);
  • international students (please see above);
  • maintaining key legal migration flows;
  • reduction or loss of remittances;
  • and return issues.

The publication of the last three Informs is foreseen in Oktober and November 2020. About each of these Informs, a webinar will normally be organised. 

Publication Date:
Thu 17 Sep 2020
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