Should You Continue Your Studies in the Middle of COVID-19?

With COVID-19 impacting nearly every sector including education, a lot of students are starting to seriously consider whether they should continue their tertiary education or postponed it. The truth is, it’s a bit of a gamble. As you can see, education institutions across the world have gone through a whirlwind process of closing the campus, re-opening it before closing it again.

Both options are valid, so today we’ve compiled reasons why you SHOULD pursue your studies and why you SHOULDN’T.

Reasons to pursue your studies:

Classes are still on-going

And it is! Universities and colleges are still welcoming student admission which shows that even in the middle of a global pandemic, education still carries on. While physical classes are currently barred, many education institutions have turned to online classes to maintain some alternate programming for students affected by closures, travel restrictions, or quarantines.

Confident that lack of face-to-face learning won’t affect your studies? Then you should definitely still apply to your dream university!

You’re willing to adapt

It’s important that you remain flexible and adaptable to the situations. Unless we have a vaccine, there will come a time where cases have dwindled down and students are allowed to return to campuses, but then a spike in cases might require everyone to resort back to online classes. In cases like this, you need to be physically, mentally, and financially ready.

Do you have the means to learn via online – laptop, internet connection, privacy? And can you afford the necessities once campuses are opened once more? These are important factors that you need to seriously consider if you’re planning to pursue your studies right now.

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Reasons to postpone your studies:

You’re planning to go abroad

This is fairly obvious. If you’ve been planning to study abroad, now is definitely not a good time at all thanks to travel restrictions. In fact, more than 50% of prospective international students are considering changing their plans by postponing their studies or studying in a different country (Educations.com).

For this situation, it’s just better to wait until the pandemic heat has died down.

Distance learning is impossible for you

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As of right now, classes are mostly conducted via home based-learning. But are you personally up to that?

To ensure a smooth online class, you need to have (as we mentioned previously) a functioning laptop, stable internet connection, as well as the privacy to learn your lessons while at home. It’s also so much more than that – are you disciplined enough to stay motivated with distance learning?

Can you promise that you won’t mute the lecturer when the zoom meeting starts? That you would read the topics that you’re supposed to read? That you will take for the online test without cheating and browsing online?

What do Afterschool.my think?

We believe, despite the pandemic, that you should definitely pursue your tertiary studies. A number of education institutions are trying their best to help students adapt to this frankly confusing time by offering discounted tuition fees. Plus, many organizations as well as the government have initiated programmes to provide laptops, Internet plans and the likes. 

So, while it may seem like a hopeless situation, there’s actually a lot of helping hands to get you on your education track with unlimited resources! We our article today will make your decision easier. 

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Afterschool.my is Malaysia’s no 1 higher education website that provides helpful information on courses, institutions and scholarships for students transitioning from secondary school to university level.