A Survey on Imminent Effects of the COVID-19 on Chinese Students' Willingness of Studying Abroad
Since its outbreak in late 2019, the COVID-19 (the new coronavirus pandemic disease) has spread throughout the globe at an unexpectedly rapid pace. It brought severe negative effects to all walks of life, and this paper analyzes especially its impacts on Chinese students studying or planning to study abroad by sending out a survey. As the United States has become the country with most confirmed cases as well as most related deaths since May 27th, 2020, the survey mainly focused on the Chinese students planning to study in the U.S. It asked the respondents about their decisions regarding their plan of studying abroad, and the reasons behind them by different scales of significance. Considering that the questions of the survey are relatively detailed and that the number of respondents (269) is limited, this paper applied qualitative analysis to the study. The hypothesis is that students making different decisions (generally either choosing in-person study or virtual/online study) are impacted by different considerations, which is generally tested as effective. However, the epidemic-related elements are the most influential among all options for those who decide not to go abroad for their studies. The result of the study is partially consistent with the hypothesis that the number of students staying home exceeds that of students going abroad. There are also unexpected outcomes, including that the deteriorating U.S.-China relationship plays an overwhelming part in the avoidance of going to the States.