Impact of unprecedented floods in Pakistan on the education sector and international student mobility

In just three months, between June to August, Pakistan experienced 190 percent more rainfall than the average it receives during monsoons, with total number of fatalities to date standing at over 1,000. The southern Sindh province which is the worst affected accounts for 40 per cent of total deaths in the country so far, while only the eastern part of Pakistan has not been affected. 

However, from an education perspective, most of the private and public sector schools and educational institutions across the country have now reopened. Some of the public sector education institutions are being used as relief camps for flood victims, particularly in Sindh.

While the floods have had a major effect on both Pakistan’s people and the country’s economy, with an estimated one in seven Pakistanis being economically affected by the floods, the sentiment on the ground towards overseas education continues to be positive. Both the British Council’s own observations and consultations with agents and counsellors suggest that there does not seem to have been an adverse impact on student plans to study overseas.

International travel to Pakistan and inter-city travel to all major cities of Pakistan is open for air, road, and railway travel. However, access remains difficult to some of the remote areas of the Northern and Southern parts of Pakistan – especially the remote areas of provinces like Gilgit-Baltistan, Sindh and Balochistan.

British Council comments

Despite the devastation caused by the floods, sentiment towards studying abroad does not appear to have been affected. This may be because the areas that have been badly affected by floods are mainly rural and traditionally have not sent large numbers of students overseas for higher education.

Recent visa data shows that the number of Pakistani students studying in the UK continues to grow. The number of UK visas issued to Pakistani students in the first half of 2022 was 8,117, more than twice the number issued in the same period of 2021, while 14,467 student visas were issued to main applicants in 2021, bringing the number to three times its pre-Covid value in 2019.

The Pakistan Higher Education Commission in a recent meeting with the British Council conveyed its intent to increase numbers of international scholarship for Pakistani students and that the UK continues to be a preferred choice due to our close ties and quality of education.

If you have any queries, please write to Usman Khalid.

For further details:

https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2022/9/6311c7f54/pakistans-disastrous-floods-uproot-refugees-citizens.html

https://pakistan.un.org/en/197499-2022-pakistan-floods-response-plan-frp

https://www.unocha.org/story/daily-noon-briefing-highlights-pakistan-0

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/pakistan

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2022/why-do-people-come-to-the-uk-to-study