Moroccan students from Ukraine favor integration into Kingdom’s universities

Moroccan students in Ukraine are rejecting going to Romania to continue their studies, and prefer integration to Moroccan universities.

Those students decided to meet in coordination, in order to unify their visions regarding the resumption of their studies and the possible ways to not waste their academic accomplishments, achieved prior to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

A member of the Student Coordination confirmed to Hespress AR that about 2,300 students joined the Coordination in order to initiate actions with the various concerned sectors and government officials in order to find reasonable solutions to their case.

The coordination of students “are looking forward to program meetings with the government majority parties, and with the Ministry of Higher Education in the upcoming weeks,” and are “counting on dialogue as an effective means to reach a solution.”

It is tough to adopt remote learning in Ukrainian universities for several disciplines, especially for those related to applied sciences, including medicine and engineering fields.

The option of transferring the students to universities in Romania did not appeal to a significant number of students and their families, given the double cost of tuition fees and the cost of living.

The father of a young student who spent first four years in a veterinary school in Ukraine, Moutassim Mustapha told Hespress AR that “a significant group of families hope that priority will be given to discussing integration within Moroccan universities,” stressing that “the expenses that parents will pay in the event of a transfer to Romania will burden them.”

In addition to the language barrier, parents say the transfer will hinder integration, all while wasting the efforts the students’ had made in their initial European host country.

“Since Morocco suffers from shortcomings at the level of medical staff, and there are discussions on the executive level about the possibility of relying on foreign doctors to practice the profession in Morocco, priority should be given to these Moroccan students.”

The expenses paid by the families of Moroccan students in Ukraine vary from one specialty to another.

Moutassim confirmed to Hespress AR that he paid about “MAD 40,000 annually, while others paid a total of MAD 25,000, and the cost may reach upwards of MAD 80,000, depending on cities and universities.”