About 100 students have left EHU after it was labeled “extremist”

After the European Humanities University was declared an “extremist organization” in Belarus, around 100 students left the university. This was stated by EHU rector Vilius Šadauskas in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

“We had two serious events — September last year (when the Belarusian authorities designated EHU’s website and social media as ‘extremist’ — RFE/RL) and April 14 this year. Around 50 students left in September of last year. But at the same time we had a very interesting situation, because every day some students were leaving while others were returning from academic leave. So these two numbers were competing, and it seems about 10 more students left than returned to continue their studies,” the rector recalled.

From April 14 to May 14, the university lost 100 students.

According to Šadauskas, EHU began the academic year with 1,600 students, while 1,129 remained at the start of the second semester. At present, the university has around 1,000 students. About 70–75% of them are Belarusians.

The rector says Belarusian security services had been interested in EHU students even before the university received the “extremist” label.

“During Christmas or summer holidays, certain students were subjected to ‘meetings’ and ‘conversations.’ We had a hypothesis that some students were questioned not only because they studied at EHU, but also because they were involved in activism, NGOs, or other activities. Such summonses and interrogations always existed. But now there are more of them, and we know about them. There have been around 10 cases in total. This mostly concerns part-time students,” he noted.

Šadauskas added that part-time students make up around 30% of EHU’s student body, while about 10% of them are in Belarus. Some of them have suspended their studies. Among part-time students in Lithuania, 10 people stopped studying.

It became known on April 14 that the Alexander Lukashenko regime had designated EHU an “extremist organization.” The university’s symbols and branding were also banned.

/ automated translation