Delays

Students hoping to pursue further education at home or abroad are also facing uncertainty.

Zhu Zhengdan, a 21-year-old in the School of Journalism and Communication at Nanjing Normal University, has taken the exam to enter Nanjing University, a separate institution, for a master's.

The exam results were announced 10 days later than last year, and she is still waiting to hear if she has been selected for the second round of exams at her dream school. In recent years, the process had been completed by now.

"I am preparing for the second exams at home, but it's not very efficient because I didn't bring back a lot of review materials from school. Moreover, for less-disciplined candidates like myself, the environment and pace at home are not as good as on campus," Zhu said.

"I can't say graduation in 2020 will be tougher than in other years because I didn't experience those times, and, actually, graduates struggle to meet academic goals every year. But, we were definitely unlucky to encounter the epidemic."

She said she will consider studying for another 12 months if she fails to make the grade this year.

Overseas dilemma

Nearly a year ago, Alex Chen, a financial engineering student at Shanghai University, made the decision to study for a master's overseas.

"I didn't expect so many interruptions along the way," he said.

Luckily for Chen, he received an offer from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom before Lunar New Year. That freed him from issues that may hit his peers, such as the cancellation of the exam for the international English Language Testing System－a linguistic requirement for students from the Chinese mainland to study overseas－in February.

However, the situation in the UK remains uncertain. "So far, the university hasn't released any notices for freshmen enrolled in fall 2020," he said, adding that he will keep checking pandemic updates, especially for the UK, ahead of his supposed departure in September.

"If the epidemic is not under control there, I will delay attending the university or even take another year off my studies and find internships in China," he said.