Education Provider: Safety Fears and Visa Delays

education provider: Visa delays, concerns over being shut out of research projects and safety fears have turned off Chinese students, according to several admissions consultancies and nearly a dozen parents and students interviewed by AFP. Rival education powerhouses such as Britain, Australia and Canada are the biggest beneficiaries, a survey by New Oriental China's biggest private education provider said, according to CTV. Japan and South Korea -- traditional study abroad destinations for the Chinese elite -- and parts of Europe, especially Germany and Scandinavian countries with strong engineering programs, have also seen an uptick in applications, the survey found. China accounts for nearly a third of foreign students on U.S. campuses who pour billions of dollars into the economy, but in March their numbers dropped for the first time in a decade. The chilling effect started mid-last year, after President Donald Trump's administration slashed the visa duration of students in science and technology fields from five years to one in some cases. Over one third of the roughly 360,000 Chinese students in the U.S. study in STEM fields -- science, technology, engineering and mathematics -- according to the Institute of International Education in New York. Now there's a lot of uncertainty on whether they can even finish their studies, said Gu Huini, founder of boutique college consultancy Zoom In. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.