A group of doctoral students studying in the UK under the international program "Bolashak" was left without funding

A group of doctoral students who are studying in the UK under the special international program "Bolashak", was left without funding.

UK universities were closed from March to October due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Laboratories, archives, libraries, study rooms and dormitories were closed in higher education institutions. Therefore, the training was extended for all doctoral students for six months.

According to the doctoral students, the Center for international programs under the Ministry of education of the Republic considered their requests for financial support for seven months. In the end, the doctoral student was refused, and the reasons for the refusal were not given.

The UK has extended funding to doctoral students who study on British grants.

Students report that while their applications were under consideration, the Ministry of education of Kazakhstan in the summer still extended the training of one of the doctoral students in the framework of "Bolashak".

During the state of emergency, the state Commission decided to pay a scholarship in the amount of 280 thousand tenge to those who urgently returned to their homeland. But at the same time, doctoral students who, on the recommendation of the Center for international programs, remained in the UK, did not pay anything extra.

On November 25, Ainur Kabozova in an interview with informburo.kz reported that more than 180 fellows of the program returned to Kazakhstan. At the same time, she noted that most students still decided to stay in the countries of study, because it was safer: there are no contacts in public places, on the plane, etc.