This paper draws attention to the current and possible effects of COVID-19 on the mobility trajectories of mainland Chinese students studying in Asia. By drawing on 35 biographical interviews, this paper focuses on their decision to study in Asian countries and regions. Particularly, it calls for more attention to Asia in global student mobilities and discusses whether COVID-19 has changed the position of Asia in the global landscape of student mobility. Results show that even if COVID-19 provides an opportunity for Asian universities to embrace more international students, Asia still lacks the capability to attract great numbers of them. Finally, the study argues that college students’ choice of mobility destinations is shaped by their perception of the central–periphery structure of higher education, which is hard to be shaken by the pandemic.

Building on a theoretical model of decision-making under risk and uncertainty, this paper examines how Chinese college students made decisions about international moblity or immobility during the Covid 19 pandemic. The paper finds that among the 118 interviewees, most continued to choose to study abroad, whilst some gave up after getting offers from prestigious Western universities. We further analysed the divergent patterns of two choices which can be explained by resilience to risks and uncertainties and lack of thereof. For those who have given up studying abroad, the symbolic capital and labor market advantages brought by degrees (especially master degrees) from Western universities have become uncertain and offset by the risk of the epidemic. These findings suggest that, in addition to safety, college students will prefer certainty more than before when choosing whether to go abroad and the study abroad landscape may change based on this mindset.