Though the pandemic has brought challenges for international students studying at Chinese universities and Chinese students seeking education overseas, experts told at a meeting in Shanghai on Monday that they were optimistic about the future of international education. Wu Yingjun, head of the Shanghai Education Commission’s international exchange division, said the number of international students studying in colleges in Shanghai had dropped from over 60,000 to below 40,000 due to the pandemic, but those seeking academic diplomas remain stable at over 60 percent of the total. He said Shanghai will welcome back more overseas students after the situation is more stable. Huang Meixu, director of the East China Normal University’s global education center, said the university had inevitably seen a drop in international applicants in the past year due to COVID-19, and some of its international students had chosen to temporarily suspend their studies due to difficulties in taking online classes, such as the lack of face-to-face communication with teachers and classmates and the need to take classes at night due to time differences.