Life under the Covid-19 pandemic is hard for everyone, but it is particularly so for many international students who are studying far away from home. As international students studying and working at universities in London, we have found it challenging to be away from home at the moment. 

ApplyBoard ia a THE Student trusted partner. ApplyBoard provides prospective international students with the information and advice they need to study aborad in Canada. For more information on ApplyBoard and how they can help you, you can visit their hub here. 

I am Jian Feng, the first ever international student executive officer at the University of Leeds’ students’ union. I want to share with you my journey during the coronavirus pandemic. 

As the clock struck midnight on 1 January 2021, the start of the new year also marked the end of the UK’s membership in the European Union. 

And with that, it also meant that the UK was no longer a part of the EU’s Erasmus+ programme, which has enabled university staff and student exchanges across Europe. 

The UK has instead created its own programme, the Turing scheme (named after pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing).

However, Turing differs from Erasmus+ in a few ways.

As with everything in 2020, the world of higher education has been forced to adapt to the impact of Covid-19. 

Students the world over have had their studies and university applications interrupted and transformed, as classes and admissions interviews went online for the first time. 

I studied at Loughborough University in London from September 2015 to December 2016.

When I first arrived I could smell new carpets and see glossy reflections on the recently polished glass walls. An ambitious road map of the city’s emerging hub could be seen in the ongoing construction work in Here East, east London, where the campus was located. We were its very first students in the very first year and everything was so shiny and new.