Ukraine war takes toll on Lebanese students
BEIRUT: Lebanese university students who fled Ukraine are now struggling to complete their education back home, facing a precarious future as an unprecedented economic crisis crushes their country and their career prospects.
“Even war is beter than being here,” said 25-year-old Yasser Harb, who let Kyiv just two days before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb.24.
The final-year medical student is now back in a country where electricity is scarce, public services are dysfunctional at best, the local currency has collapsed and living costs have skyrocketed.
He and fellow students are now batling to continue their studies remotely, while others face interruptions amid obstacles to transferring their enrolment.
Beirut said in late March that around 1,000 students had managed to leave Ukraine, long a destination for Lebanese seeking more affordable universities.
At least 340 of them have registered with Lebanon’s education ministry to continue their studies.
But Education Minister Abbas Halabi said none of those registered had joined a private university in Lebanon, noting that most had arrived mid-semester.
He acknowledged that students “whose universities in Ukraine were bombed could not even recover their transcripts” to proceed with re-enrolment back home.
Bassam Badran, president of the country’s only public university, the Lebanese University, said returning students would have to wait until the next academic year to enrol.
“They will have to pass the entrance examination at the start of the next school year,” he said.
Since returning, Harb has been struggling to complete his degree online from his family home in south Lebanon, as power cuts of up to 23 hours a day wreak havoc with his internet connection and his studies.
Even electricity from expensive private generators can be unstable and rarely covers the gaps.
“Slow internet makes it hard to understand what our teachers are saying and affects our grades,” he told reporters, adding that he was thinking of returning to Ukraine once flights resume.
The capital Kyiv has managed to maintain electricity supply despite the ongoing conflict, and public transport has remained functional, with life steadily resuming a semblance of normalcy.