New Delhi: For Indian students enrolled in Chinese colleges, the wait to return to campuses, and reunite with their classmates and teachers, just got longer. Earlier this month, China announced that foreign students are still not allowed into the country in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Even as colleges begin to reopen for domestic residents, China has asked foreign students to stay in step with classes through online lessons.
According to Union Education Ministry data, as of 2019, 23,000 Indian students were enrolled at Chinese higher education institutions. Among them, 21,000 were pursuing medicine, with the remaining studying engineering and language.
Most of these students have been in India since January, when Chinese colleges closed for their Lunar New Year break.
Many others were brought back as Covid-19 spread in China, where the pandemic is believed to have originated late last year. Since then, they have been grappling with a forced break that is robbing them of crucial college time.
In the absence of physical classes, students have been taking lessons online, which include recorded classes and calls with faculty members.
Students told ThePrint that the online classes are largely conducted through Dingtalk, a China-based app similar to Zoom, a portal developed by a US-based Chinese entrepreneur that has been a vehicle of digital lessons and meetings amid the Covid lockdown in India.
While some colleges conduct video classes through the app, others use it to share video files. Students say the online lessons are helping them keep up, but they can’t wait to get back to their campuses.
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‘I miss interacting with classmates’
Sudhanshu Singh, a medical student at Hubei University of Science and Technology in Wuhan said his teachers are ensuring those overseas have proper access to lessons.
“I have been in touch with my teachers online for the last couple of months now. Since we cannot go back to college, our teachers are making sure that we get access to our lessons. They send recorded lessons to students along with reading material and we have been asked to contact them anytime we wish,” he told ThePrint.
Online classes conducted by Chinese universities are largely in the 6 am-3 pm (IST) window.
“We have virtual lectures everyday that start from 6 am (8.30 am China time) and go on till 3 pm, with a one-hour break in between,” said Kirti Pathak, who is enrolled at Kunming Medical University in Yunnan province.
“We have been told that the practical part of our studies will be done once we are back on the campus… For now, theory is going on pretty well. However, medicine is mostly about practicals, so I miss going to college,” she added.
Aneesha Sandhu, a medical student enrolled at Wuhan University, said she misses “going to college and being able to interact with my classmates”.
“Also, right now it’s safer to be in China than in India, with the increasing number of Covid-19 cases here,” she added.
Asked how she is managing her studies, she said, “The colleges have an excellent arrangement. They have dedicated apps for tests and routine lessons. I am in the fifth year of my MBBS and we just wrote our half-yearly exams on the app provided by college. Our routine lessons are conducted on Dingtalk and it’s very convenient.”
While colleges in China are reopening for domestic students, it does not worry their Indian classmates because they say foreigners form a separate batch at most universities. “Me and all the other Indian students are in a separate batch… Our time schedule is different from that of Chinese students and, also, they study in Chinese and we study in English, so we will not be at a disadvantage as compared to them,” said Sandhu.
“About the practical portions of our course, our faculty members have promised to make up for it when we return to campuses.”
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