Students in Russia issue alarm over worsening conditions

Congolese students in Russia have let out a ‘cry of alarm’ over deteriorating conditions due to inadequate grants combined with Russia’s ‘galloping inflation’. And while about 20,000 students studying at home and abroad qualified for grants in 2016, many of them did not receive the full amount in time because of administrative delays.

Lionel Ray Bindikou, leader of the Association des Etudiants et Stagiaires Congolais en Fédération de Russie, or AESCFR, the association representing Congolese students and interns in Russia, presented grievances over deteriorating social and academic conditions that had been preoccupying them for nearly a decade, reported Agence d’Information d’Afrique Centrale or ADIAC.

“We are launching a cry of alarm to the highest authorities of our country for them to help us and let us finish our search for knowledge in the most appropriate conditions,” said the students in a statement.

They demanded an increase in their supplementary grant and its allocation without discrimination to all Congolese students in Russia. The AESCFR also demanded their grants be paid on time, because the delays caused harm, especially when they had to pay health insurance, rent, transport and other charges.

They also called for students to have return air tickets at least once during their university course to carry out placements in Congo, and two tickets for those carrying out six-year doctoral studies.

AESCFR also asked authorities to make it easier to access placements and to allocate air tickets more promptly to take account of visa requirements.

“This not insignificant problem spoils the image of the Congolese state for the Russian authorities and is an embarrassment for us students, because for more than five years the return tickets don’t arrive, or arrive when the visas have expired. In the second case, the students have to pay a fine, then are turned away with a five-year ban on their return to Russian soil,” claimed the association.

Meanwhile, Jean Grégoire Ossebi, director of social affairs and university services at the ministry of higher education, presented details of the more than 20,000 grants awarded to students studying in the Republic of Congo and abroad, reported ADIAC.

Ossebi said 14,597 grants were awarded to students last year at the country’s only publicly funded university, Marien Ngouabi University, at a cost of FCFA2.82 billion (US$4.6 million), but they had received their grants for only three of the four terms.

In Cuba, the 2,140 students – nearly all of them studying medicine – received two of three terms’ grants; in West Africa, 1,416 recipients received two terms’ funding, except for Senegal where three terms were paid. In West Europe, and North America and neighbouring countries 740 grants – 632 of them in France – were paid for two terms, reported ADIAC.

Other grants were paid to 163 students in Russia and other East European countries; 50 in East and Southern Africa; and 148 in Central Africa.

Ossebi said that it was the directorate of social affairs and university services’ responsibility to award and renew grants before it made any commitments. “We cannot do better in 2017 if we do not learn the lessons of 2016. If we want to learn lessons from 2016… students must understand the system of awarding grants, up to when they are paid,” he said.

He said many higher education problems were rooted in awarding and paying grants, and called on students not to boycott their courses for fear there would be harmful consequences for their future.

Concerning the delays in the 2016 grant payments, the directorate indicated that these were largely due to administrative hold-ups caused by delayed official reports from institutions attached to Marien Ngouabi University.

“Conditions for awarding and renewing grants have been laid down in departmental notices. However, many institutions have not yet sent their reports about the examinations, which has proved to be another handicap. We were obliged to organise an extraordinary meeting for those that were late. Even then, some results did not reach us. But if we don’t have the official reports, we cannot do the work,” said Ossebi.

This article is drawn from local media. University World News cannot vouch for the accuracy of the original reports.