Recently a group of students from Belgium left for home in the middle of the course they were pursuing after the authorities increased the hostel charges several times. Simultaneously increases in examination fees, registration fees admission fees have been effected putting them in acute financial difficulty.

The students were at their wits end not knowing what to do to counter the sudden development. Their local classmates tried to aid them to the extent possible but the heavy additional financial burden they could hardly bear and finding no alternatives they left for Belgium.

Recently the Student Federation of India held a convention at Santiniketan taking up the cause of the foreign students studying in Biswabharati. Kim Sim of South Korea, Sumitra of Sri Lanka, Aija of Britain, Sanam of Bhutan, Rafiqual of Bangladesh said that they had never dreamt of the difficulties they were facing now. Finding accommodation in the hostel is a real problem. One has to adopt backdoor means for getting accommodation in the university hostel. Even after such accommodation is available the living conditions are found frightful, they all said. They said that for admission to Biswabharati, so long a clearance from the External Affairs Ministry used to suffice. The Biswabharati authorities are not ready to accept the prevalent method of admission. They are also facing serious hurdle in the matter of 'residential registration' According to Sanam, a student from Bhutan, getting a scholarship is almost equivalent to winning a battle.

Some female students went to the university office to get certain points cleared about issue of certificates sometime ago. There they found an office staff in a drunken state inside the office room itself. The matter had come to such a pass that intervention of the departmental head had to be sought and the certificate was issued after several months.

A teacher is learnt to have rented out rooms to students in his personal house he had built for repayment of the loans he has taken from the university. Facilities in the hostels are also poor with light, drinking water becoming not available on many days. Books are not available in the library. The library is also being used for taking tuition by the university teachers. Those who still continue their studies wait eagerly for the period of study to come to an end.