Interview: Sarah, Austrian student arrived in Mauritius amidst the pandemic

Tell us a little about yourself

I'm a 24-year-old Austrian with a tendency to wander travel-hungrily around and never settling for longer than a year or two. My education and early professional life have taken me to several European countries so far, but never beyond Europe. After my undergraduate degree I started working for a global consulting company in Germany but only about a year later I started asking myself: Is this it? Well, now studying in Mauritius may give you a hint on how I answered this question to myself. Even though my job was thrilling, challenging, and rewarding I couldn't quite picture myself settling down already. So I decided to grab the chance of resuming my studies in an exciting country while taking an unpaid leave from my job.

You're coming to Mauritius to study, what made you decide to study in Mauritius amidst a pandemic?

I made the decision to study in Mauritius actually before the pandemic started. Though when I finally received the confirmation and study offer of the university, the pandemic was ongoing, Mauritius was locked down, and no one knew how long this would continue. What helped me pursue the decision was the university's flexibility: they guaranteed online classes for international students who might not be able to join Mauritius in time for the beginning of on-campus teaching because of travel restrictions. In hindsight, I suppose I simply refused to let the pandemic have any serious impact on my plans. 

Why choose Mauritius for your studies?

I chose Mauritius to experience a very special world of multicultural fusion where different languages, religions, origins, cuisines mix every day; to live on an island and be close to the sea; to study in an international environment; to see palm trees every day; to get to know a piece of Africa; to feel summer all year round; and to live the ‘If not now, when?' motto to the fullest. Additionally, Mauritius has an interesting offer of international universities with a variety of undergrad and postgraduate courses, in my case the British Middlesex University.

Once you decided on Mauritius, what were the procedures you had to undertake?

Once I decided on Mauritius, I searched for interesting study courses and applied for them, which included translation of documents, doing a certification of language proficiency (English), and providing the standard application documents. After receiving and accepting the university's offer (in May 2020), I had to apply for a student visa, i.e. lots of paperwork and medical tests but well guided by the university. The tricky detail was how to send the documents to the university as they required to receive the original documents instead of scans or copies, while Mauritius had stopped all international postal services (at least from Germany/Austria). So I had to send them with DHL Express Courier (in July 2020). After that was sorted, it was a long wait because the Mauritian authorities had stopped processing student visas. Nonetheless, guided by my optimism, I booked a room in the student home next to the campus and started classes online while living in Austria (in September 2020). After what seemed to be endless weeks of impatience, I was notified that the authorities resumed student visa processing in late November 2020 and finally received my visa in January 2021. 

How was the travel amidst the pandemic?

To be very frank: I perceived travelling amidst the pandemic as stressful, exhausting, and expensive. Stressful because there is so much to consider and organise – very limited travel possibilities, quarantine facilities, risk of getting infected on the journey, etc. Exhausting because I had a long transit time due to the limited number of flights, and also because wearing masks for the entire duration of the journey is simply exhausting. Expensive – I think it goes without saying that expenses of travelling during the pandemic are high due to PCR tests required and the mandatory quarantine in Mauritius. 

How was the quarantine experience in Mauritius?

My quarantine was as pleasant as a 14-days stay in a hotel room can get, thankfully. I had a lovely room with a balcony surrounded by palm trees and a glimpse of the sea, tasty food, and friendly staff (Lagoon Attitude Hotel). The first week went by very quickly but the second week was rather long. I tried to keep myself busy with study and university tasks, yoga and exercising, reading and series.

How is Mauritius different to Austria in terms of the pandemic?

I suppose there are a lot of differences in this respect. First of all, Mauritius is an island which gives the country an enormous advantage of isolation and limitation of entry, whereas Austria is surrounded by land borders and is part of the Schengen area, i.e. default of no border controls. Thus, it is much more difficult for Austria to control who enters the country. While life in Mauritius is currently nearly ‘normal', Austria is only slowly loosening the measures of the third lockdown since infection rates remain relatively high. So living in these two countries at the moment is not comparable at all.