Thirteen universities cancelled their visits to the college for 2020. Eleven of these groups were forced to cancel their visits to the College as a result of Covid-19. The other two groups cancelled due to changes within their own training environments that caused them not to have enough students enrolled in the course abroad before their own countries placed them under lockdown regulations as well.
University groups that visit the college come from both foreign and local educational and/or governmental institutions. The international travel restrictions have unfortunately had a direct and serious impact on the College’s bottom line. We are however pleased to advise that these universities, which have been coming to the College annually or bi-annually for a number of years, have given indications that they intend returning next year once the travel restrictions are lifted.
We are all however not sure what economic impacts will be staring us all in the face and which may cause a ‘second wave of non-return’ to SA in 2021. This possibility is being carefully monitored and we remain positive that things will return to some form of normality so that we can continue working with these universities from across the globe. We also look forward to welcoming those universities who had planned to visit us for the first time.
With many institutions both locally and internationally moving more firmly into the online space, we are also looking at how we can collaborate and launch the themed courses from our university programme curricula in the form of webinars. Obviously in terms of the practical aspects and visits to our wildlife parks and other cultural sites, this would need to be addressed in terms of travel practicalities and timing.
The following is a list of institutions that since mid-2019 have been planning to come to South Africa and who had to cancel their travel arrangements due globally imposed lockdown restrictions. This have represented a substantial loss in income to the college for the year 2020.
|
Committed University/Groups 2020 |
Month Expected |
|
West Bengal Forestry Department India |
Expected for April/May 2020 |
|
University of Florida |
Expected for May/June 2020 |
|
Texas A&M |
Expected June 2020 |
|
Putney Tours |
Expected July 2020 |
|
Time Travel |
Expected June 2020 |
|
LD Van Essen – Foreign group |
Expected August 2020 |
|
Michigan State University |
Expected August 2020 |
|
University of Mpumalanga |
Expected April 2020 |
|
Tshwane University of Technology (Belgium Group) |
Expected March 2020 |
|
Southern Utah University |
Expected May 2020 |
|
Sierra Nevada College |
Expected April/May 2020 |
|
Groups that were not able to come due to insufficient students but would have also have had to cancel due to Covid-19 lockdown measures. |
Month Expected |
|
University of Queensland |
Expected July 2020 |
|
Wagenin University, Netherlands |
Expected February 2020 |
