When she accepted an offer from a renowned university in mainland China in March 2021, Goh Yong Le had already envisaged the worst-case scenario: spending her two-year master’s degree program staring at a computer screen.
The 23-year-old from Malaysia, who like other international students was attracted to studying in China by its scholarships, affordable tuition and a relatively low cost of living, is among tens of thousands of students who were stuck in their home country for over two years after Beijing banned their entry due to the pandemic.
She finally settled in at Fudan University in Shanghai in February, which she described as a “long-awaited return” to normal university campus life.
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