India’s tired, depressed, stranded students desperate to return to their second home in China
- Around 20,000 Indian students are enrolled in Chinese universities, with the vast majority studying medicine due to a similar curriculum
- But they have been forced to study online due to the coronavirus, and despite assurances, they face an anxious wait to find out when they can return
Shahroz Khan was in his third year at Nantong University College of Medicine when the coronavirus pandemic first struck China and he decided to fly back to India.
Over the next two and half years, for complex, senior-level courses such as surgery, orthopaedics, and ophthalmology, online demonstrations replaced hands-on, practical learning in clinical laboratories and hospitals.
“Of course we feel this loss,” said 23-year-old Khan from Delhi. “We should have been there and we should have been able to gain this knowledge physically. That feeling will be there throughout our lives.”
Khan, though, continued to pay 1,700 yuan (US$252) per month in rent, having moved to Nantong in September 2017, hoping he would be allowed to return to China to resume his practical studies and be reunited with his belongings.
The owner had to just throw our things because we lost our hope to return
But in March, with only three months left until the end of his fifth year and the start of his final year internship, he finally gave up the flat.
“The owner had to just throw our things because we lost our hope to return,” said Khan, who is the student coordinator for Indian Students in China and also the Foreign Medical Graduates Parents’ Association.
