Owing to the precarious conditions in Afghanistan, the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay had allowed nine students from the country to return to the campus to continue their studies.
However, IIT Bombay Director Shubhashish Chowdhary recently told ANI that the students may not be able to come, which is why seats have been reserved for them for next year.
"9 Afghan students who were offered admission this year are continuing online classes from there. Now they realize that things aren't going to be as easy as they were. They sought permission to stay at the campus here as special case," he said.
"They said even internet can be stopped and they may not be able to take classes. So we have allowed them but they may not be able to come. In this case, we will try to reserve seats for them so that they can come and join us next year," the director said.
The students had earlier left for home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, due to the worsening conditions in the country, they requested the IIT Bombay authorities to allow them permission to stay in the hostel, which the institute granted.
In a post on Facebook IIT Bombay Director Subhasis Chaudhuri said, "We offered admission to quite a few students from Afghanistan in the masters program this year under scholarships from ICCR. Because of online instructions, they were participating in the class from home. However, due to rapidly deteriorating conditions in their homeland, they wanted to come out of their country and join the hostels in the campus. Although we have approved their request to come to the campus as a special case, we are not sure how late it is for them to pursue their dreams. We hope that they are all safe and can join us soon."
The students are pursuing the M-tech program at IIT Bombay and were awarded scholarships from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
Published on: Monday,August 16, 2021, 04:17 PM IST
