Introduction

The world, of late, is facing a pandemic that has been proving itself to be one of the major issues in the current world. The higher education system in the UK is being severely affected by the lockdown imposed by the UK government. This research provides an account of the student experience in UK HE since the emergence of Covid 19. The research analyses the challenges of students, staff in the UK in the context of the covid 19 situation.The campus of different universities has remained closed in the time of pandemic and the UK government has imposed a strict lockdown throughout the country in this time which severely affected the education of foreign students who were studying in the universities like Oxford, Cambridge, and so on. In this research, the data that have been used are secondary qualitative data due to the inability of primary data due to the lockdown. The essay examines the negative impact on the higher education system of the United Kingdom. As the UK is a developed country and the country stepped into the global approach of education foreign students across the globe have come despite being faced different difficulties. The research lights the topic of safety measures for the prevention of Covid 19 taken by the government of the UK. The research also elaborates the matter that describes the experience of international graduate vans postgraduate students in this pandemic situation. The research will aid in the finding of the right approach that should be taken not only by the government of the UK but also every government of the world.

Discussion

Literature Review

Student experience in the UK HE since Covid 19 pandemic

The essay reviewed that the UK has been severely affected by the covid 19 virus resulting in the pandemic situation that compelled the UK government to impose strict lockdown across the country. The strict lockdown has had many consequences in the higher education system and all universities like Oxford and Cambridge had been shut during the peak time of the covid 19 outbreak. The universities and schools could not refrain from shutting down the university campuses. Along with the indigenous students, the foreign students who were pursuing different courses and studies in the UK got severely affected. The corona virus pandemic along with various measures that have been taken by the UK has affected the education system and introduced the whole education system to an edge of a hazard. The foreign students have been compelled to communicate with their universities online which were not as effective as the offline education system was (Dost et al., 2020).

As stated by Franchi, (2020) the foreign students were being mentally affected as they were confused thinking about what to do in this situation. Much higher education students have been found in a unique situation, perhaps isolated in a room with others they do not even know. A wide range of research has been conducted on the wellbeing of students due to being impacted by the covid 19 virus including the ‘Student covid insights survey’ (SCIS) which was conducted by the ‘office for national statistics (ONS). A huge 29% of students have been dissatisfied with their experience in the pandemic situation (Longhurst, et al., 2020). The universities have given notice of closure without any prior notification. It has also been reported that two-thirds of the students have downloaded the apps of CNHS covid 19 or ‘protect Scotland’ (Tice et al., 2021).

According to Swift et al., (2020) when the students have been asked what measures they would take if they developed covid 19 symptoms they stated that they would request the government to take the test and would request their universities to open the campuses. Not only that but also the students coming from African countries like Nigeria, South Africa and many more like these countries have stated that the online education system was not helping the students as these students were facing difficulties communicating with their teachers on online platforms due to weak mobile networks in their respective countries. On the contrary, the students from foreign countries like India and China who were studying in the UK have been reported to state that the country was imposing an overstrict lockdown that hampering the free flow of the higher education system (Raaper and Brown, 2020).

As stated by Longhurst et al., (2020) a recent few pieces of research have stated that the universities mainly involved in the desk-based study and learning like self-study and online learning whereas around a quarter of the students who participated in the research stated that the studies in the universities are involved in the class-based learning. The universities though are trying no0w to revive its normal working schedule despit