Doctoral Students Deported From China Seek Help From President Tebboune
The future of Algerian doctoral students who were repatriated after the closure of the Chinese borders due to the spread of the Coronavirus around the world is still ambiguous, despite the passage of two years since their evacuation and the freezing of their academic studies, especially after the decision of the Ministry of Higher Education to terminate the contract that bound them on one side, destroy all their dreams and bury their ambition to continue their academic studies.
According to the letter that was received by Echorouk their case entered its second year when it was decided to return them to the homeland, after the outbreak of the epidemic in China and the rest of the world, and at that time, the studies period was only limited to some months, during which they received theoretical lessons only, and the Chinese authorities promised at that time to receive them again as soon as the epidemic war came to an end, with evidence that they left their research and laboratories open based on return, but the opposite happened and it became clear that they would not return to China, which means that they are facing a fatal blow to their ambitions and their academic future.
More than that, a representative of the students said in a phone interview with Echorouk that they heard that the contract concluded between them was unilaterally terminated, i.e. by the Ministry of Higher Education, at the beginning of last month, wondering about the reason for this strange step, even though they had a copy of the contract represented in a presidential decree No. 14-196 dated 08 Ramadan 1435 corresponding to July 6, 2014, guaranteeing their rights and obligating them to continue their duties, and there are articles in which they deal with the organization of training and the stipulation of termination of the contract, which can only be by mutual consent between the student and the ministry.
“The decision of the Ministry of Higher Education to compel the aforementioned students to waive their scholarship and rights is a flagrant violation of their guaranteed rights, and for this reason, they demanded to meet the President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to explain their miserable situation”, the representative of the students who come from several states of the country added.
On the other hand, the protesters called upon, in the same letter, the President of the Republic to take the necessary change the place of training and transfer them from China to another country to continue university training, as long as their specialization does not exist in Algeria and it is difficult to embody their research in Algerian laboratories that lack several basics, which is the main reason which prompted the affected students to refuse to continue their studies in Algeria, according to the text of the statement.
In parallel, a source from the Ministry of Higher Education said that the issue of students who benefited from a scholarship abroad to complete their higher studies has known a breakthrough by providing them with all the necessary conditions for the embodiment of their scientific projects, as long as the State of China did not show its enthusiasm for receiving students again despite reopening its borders to the world, which is a positive step to save the students’ fate after more than two years of hiatus.
