While large numbers of university students are taking an active part in the agitation for a separate Telangana state, and are busy fighting police personnel and politicians on university campuses, foreign students studying there are “irritated,” “confused” and “worried” by the chaos that has disrupted their studies.
Most of them are taking advantage of the 15-day ‘Telangana holiday’ as they call it, declared by the state government, to vacation in popular tourist hotspots like Goa, Pune, Mumbai and Rajasthan. Hyderabad has the second largest number of foreign students in higher education in the country, next only to Pune. About 6,000 foreign students study in the city.
“I am planning to visit Rajasthan in these 15 days. It is irritating to see so many holidays in this university. As it is there are so many religious and national holidays. We don’t know what this problem is all about. But this will certainly affect the inflow of foreign students to Hyderabad,” said Koshan Giap Wijdan, a fourth year student at the Osmania University Law College and president of the Foreign Students’ Association of Hyderabad.
Many students are beginning to regret that they chose to study here. The tuition fee of $1,000-2,500 is just not worth it, they say.“I want to complete my vacation and go home. There is nothing I can do here. I am scared to go out as there is a strike. Most of my friends have gone on vacation to Mumbai and Pune. But it is expensive to go back home,” said Vikatoria Savumiramira of Fiji who is doing her B.Com from Women’s College.
Students are shocked at the violence. “I have seen the violence for the past one week. It is not the place I wanted to pursue my higher education. If the university can give back a part of my fee, I want to go back,” said another engineering student.
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