How COVID Changed Indian Student Mobility — Before/After Data (2017–2026)
Question: How did COVID affect Indian students studying abroad?Dataset: IMFS Admissions Intelligence Dataset v2026.1 · 8,400+ exam records · pre/post-COVID comparison · 2017–2026Analysis: Descriptive observational · Inference: Non-causalRelease: IMFS-INS-008-v1.0 · Published 18 June 2026
Prepared by IMFS Insights Team ·
Executive review: Inderjit Singh Matta, CEO — IMFS ·
5 min read
-35ppGRE usage change
+29ppIELTS usage change
-43ppTOEFL usage change
+15ppCS field share change
+6.6ppAcceptance rate change
The before/after pattern among IMFS students
Among IMFS students, several patterns shifted between pre-COVID and post-COVID cohorts. This page brings together exam usage, score quality, field of study, acceptance rate, and destination changes published individually across the IMFS Insights series into a single before/after comparison.
Metric
Pre-COVID
Post-COVID
Change
GRE usage
88%
53%
-35pp
IELTS usage
11%
40%
+29pp
TOEFL usage
79%
36%
-43pp
IELTS 7.5+ band share
~9%
~28%
9% → 28%
Computer Science field share
27%
42%
+15pp
Acceptance rate
77.5%
84.1%
+6.6pp
Pre-COVID figures reflect Fall 2017–Fall 2018 cohorts; post-COVID figures reflect Fall 2020 onwards, consistent with the safe destination-analysis window defined in the methodology. Source: IMFS Admissions Intelligence Dataset v2026.1.
Exam usage shift — visual comparison
Pre-COVIDPost-COVID
Percentages reflect the share of IMFS students who gave each exam in the respective period. Students can appear in multiple columns (e.g., gave both GRE and IELTS). Source: IMFS Admissions Intelligence Dataset v2026.1.
Destination shifts coincided with this period
Over the same period, two destination-level shifts were observed among IMFS students: Germany emerged as a meaningfully selected destination, and Canada's share peaked then declined sharply.
Key finding · IMFS-INS-008
Germany emerged · Canada peaked and declinedCanada peaked at approximately 20% (Spring 2022), falling to approximately 1% (Fall 2026)
This dataset records observed before/after patterns, not the causes behind them.
COVID coincided with these shifts but this analysis does not isolate COVID as the sole or primary cause — concurrent factors such as GRE-optional policy expansion and visa policy changes also occurred during this window.
Individual student outcomes depend on factors not captured in this dataset.
University and visa requirements evolve over time. Benchmarks in this dataset reflect March 2026 data and may have changed since publication.