Mumbai: The US higher education space, already grappling with unfavourable immigration messaging and narrowing flow of foreign students, could be up for a major disruption with the unpredictability around the Covid-19 outbreak there.

Also, for all those Indians who are willing to spend a crore of rupees or more to get admitted into an Ivy league campus in the US, the wait may have just got a bit longer. Several American universities are looking at the possibility of keeping their campuses closed until January 2021 amid uncertainties around the pandemic.

Almost all the US colleges are planning to start classes in the fall semester, though many would resort to online teaching. The fall session starts in mid-August and goes on till a few days before Christmas. By going online, students stand to miss campus or classroom experience — considered critical in overseas universities. One of the biggest challenges before the American universities is catering to the expectations — such as demands of fee waiver and deferral of session — of international students who are a major contributor of revenue for these colleges.

Harvard University is preparing for a scenario in which “much or all learning will be conducted remotely” for its fall semester, provost Alan M Garber said.

“It is our hope that we will be able to resume in-person instruction, but we are preparing for the possibility that social distancing requirements and visa challenges will require some virtual learning,” Paul Oyer, senior associate dean for academic affairs at Stanford Graduate School of Business, told ET.

A spokesperson from Yale University said: “We will announce decisions about the fall no later than early July. If we can do so sooner, we will.”

“As the pandemic threatens to move the fall semester online there could be pressure on institutes to reduce fees or offer some kind of incentives to students,” said Akshay Chaturvedi, CEO, Leverage Edu.