The political turmoil and violence in Bangladesh has left students from the neighboring country enrolled in city headquartered universities worried. To ease their worries, the Gujarat University and Gujarat Technological University have swung into action. While GU authorities held a meeting with their students from Bangladesh to give them safety instructions and emergency contacts to dial, GTU has offered counselling to its students to deal with anxiety and concerns.
Officials at GU said that there are around 20 students from Bangladesh enrolled with them in undergraduate, post-graduate and doctoral studies. There are 60 students enrolled with GTU. The students are enrolled in the varsity through a scholarship from Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
“We have issued guidelines and met these students to make them feel at home. We have informed students that no student should leave Ahmedabad without informing or seeking permission from the varsity authorities. We have also issued a 24×7 emergency number for the contact, pacified them and told them not to react to any rumours or social media posts and have also asked them to share an emergency contact number,” said GU vice chancellor Neerja Gupta.
GTU’s Keyur Darji, director of the department of international relations said that they have offered counselling to students. “It is a difficult time and we have an in-house expert offering counselling to students. We have asked them to get in touch with them to deal with any tension and anxiety related to the safety of their loved ones back home. International students are already assigned mentors at GTU to give them direct access in case of any emergency,”