Vietnamese international students desperately waiting to return to China

 Vietnamese international students desperately waiting to return to China

Planning to return to Vietnam for a few weeks of Tet holiday and then come back, Duyen only brought a computer and a few clothes, but unexpectedly, she was stuck at home for nearly two years.

Nguyen My Duyen, 25 years old, from Quang Ninh, is studying for a master's degree in Tourism Management, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province. In January 2020, Duyen Tinh went back to Tet holiday for a few weeks and then returned, but unexpectedly stuck in Vietnam and had to study online until now.

Duyen is encouraged by teachers, she will only miss a semester, by September 2020 she will be able to return. But another September has passed, and she is still at home. "It's okay to wait, but I don't know when to wait. I'm very confused," Duyen said.

Nguyen Thi Hai, from La Phu commune, Hoai Duc district, Hanoi, has just started the first weeks of her second year of International Trade, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology. After winning a partial scholarship to the Chinese government last year, Hai has never been to school and has had to study online ever since.

Hai has three lessons a week, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. At 7 a.m. every day, I go to class to listen to lectures, sometimes it's more than 12 o'clock. The Navy class is nearly 40, but only 5 students are studying online. Many days when the network had problems, when he was able to log back in, Hai did not know where he was talking about. There was no book or soft copy, some teachers didn't send the lecture, so Hai was forced to ask a friend to record a video and send it to him.

"The video doesn't sound clear and it's difficult to understand if I listen to it. I have to constantly text and ask the teacher, but I'm afraid to ask too many questions so I can't understand it," Hai shared.

Hai has not been to school yet

Hai has studied online for the second year, still has not set foot in school in China. Photo: Character provided.

During the exam, Hai and his online classmates were allowed to send their homework to their own groups, after completing it, Hai passed it on to the teacher. The economics industry has too many specialized terms, and studying vegetarian online, so by the second year, Hai still has not gained much knowledge. Hai lo finds it difficult to catch up with friends when the university is only four years and two years have passed in Vietnam. But she also couldn't bear to give up because she didn't want to waste time starting over at another university.

Chinese students like Duyen and Hai have not been able to go to school since the outbreak of the pandemic. China closed its borders to most foreigners from March 2020.

Last August, China restarted visas for Korean students, which make up the largest number (10%) of all international students in the country. The majority of the half a million international students from developing countries have yet to receive any notice of their return. In February, thousands of Indian medical students staged an anger campaign on social media, with the hashtag #TakeUsBackToChina (Take us back to China).

Tran Ngoc Duy, a master in Chinese Education, Yantai University in Shandong province, shared that studying abroad in China during the two years of the epidemic encountered many deadlocks and interruptions. Duy is the admin of a group studying abroad in China with 54,000 members and he is also studying online.

China's Ministry of Education and universities recently planned not to issue subsidies during online learning, leaving foreign students frustrated and worried. Some schools find it difficult to organize online classes because they do not guarantee effectiveness. Many students are forced to reserve because they do not have the funds to maintain their living expenses during their studies.