Ukrainian universities to blame for students' plight?

Tribune News Service

Naina Mishra

Chandigarh, February 28

For the past five days, desperate parents from the city are making every possible effort to get their children out of Ukraine after Russian troops launched a full-scale invasion last Thursday. However, what propelled students not to come out of Ukraine despite the Indian Government rolling out numerous advisories is a million-dollar question.

‘It’s up to the students to decide’

“The decision is up to students if they want to go back. But as soon as offline classes will resume, they have to return in time and continue offline classes. The situation is similar in East Ukraine since 2014. Students have been studying here without any problem all these years. We are monitoring the situation,” reads a message from Liviv National Medical University.

‘First-year students won’t be considered if they leave’

A message from a university of Ukraine (on February 15) shared by a city parent read: “So far things are under control and there is no need to panic. If any situation arises, we will send you home safely. As per the new NMC guidelines, first-year students must stay in the country where they are pursuing medical education. If in any circumstances they leave the country due to online education, the first year of education will not be considered. Please wait for my further directions. Before taking any step, we need to get approval from the Embassy and the Ministry of Health/Education of Ukraine.”

While some misjudged the situation on the ground and undermined the tension between the two nations, others were hard-pressed to stay there as the universities where these Indian medical students have enrolled themselves refused them permission to return to their home country citing grave consequences that meant one would also lose admission.

Mallika Mann, a resident of Sector 20, whose daughter is studying in a university at Lviv in Ukraine, said: “As soon as we got the message from the Indian Embassy asking students to leave ahead of tensions mounting on the border of Ukraine and Russia, I asked my daughter to take the next flight and leave the country. A few students sent a message to the dean of the university that they wanted to return to India. Instead, the university threatened the students that their admissions would be cancelled if they left the country. The university kept on assuring the students that everything was under control and there was no need to panic. We trusted them.”

“The university was running online classes at the time due to Covid cases in western Ukraine, but asked students to stay saying that they would reopen anytime soon. There are stricter rules for first-year students. Later, when things escalated, my daughter booked a flight on February 24, but it didn’t take off and things had already worsened by then,” she said.

“The university was holding classes and not allowing students to leave. To be honest, we did not expect that this kind of scenario will take place where students will be left stranded. We did not expect a war-like situation,” admitted Harjeet Singh Sodhi from Kharar, whose daughter has recently returned from Ukraine.

A resident of Sector 41, Mayank Sharma, whose sister has been putting up at the Kharkiv metro station for shelter, said: “I spoke to my sister on February 14 and asked her to come back. She is in final year and feared for her degree as only two months were remaining. The university authorities did not allow online classes, rather gave false hopes that the situation was under control. She was told that her degree would be affected and no one would risk that.”

Fatehdeep Singh from Sector 12, whose both children are studying in Kharkiv, said: “The fare started rising by February 20 and the flights were costing Rs. 65,000 for one way. In some flights, the halt was for more than 18 hours. Children were not aware that the situation would escalate so much and even the university authorities made an error of judgement.”

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