TUNIS, Tunisia — Tunisian students at Ukrainian universities who fled Ukraine following the Russian invasion in February now face difficult conditions, as public Tunisian universities refuse to enroll them and authorities continue to ignore their plight. 

The failure to integrate these students into Tunisian universities has sparked widespread controversy in Tunisia. 

Tunisia’s Ministry of Higher Education announced at the beginning of the academic year in late September that Tunisian medical students who attend online courses with their Ukrainian universities would be allowed to attend internships in state hospitals and medical centers inside Tunisia instead of enrolling in local universities, which, according to the ministry, do not have the capacities to integrate a high number of students. 

The decision was widely rejected by doctors, medical students and hospitals, claiming that the move would lead to the privatization of public education in Tunisia since medical internships at public hospitals are handed out to students from public universities.