Around 100 students left EHU after the university was declared an "extremist organization"

— We had two serious events — in September last year (when the Belarusian authorities declared EHU's website and social networks "extremist") and on April 14 this year. About 50 students left their studies in September last year. But at that time, we had a very interesting situation, as some students left their studies every day, and someone returned from academic leave. Thus, these two figures competed, and it seems that 10 more students left than returned to study. This also indicates that some students view such a step as a last resort to come to Lithuania, to Vilnius, and leave Belarus.

And now, from April 14 to May 14, we have lost 100 students. Our programs in the Department of Humanities and Arts, the Department of Social Sciences, the Informatics program, and the BISEB School of Business Economics have collectively lost 100 students. Now we are looking at the figures differently, because there is also natural attrition, for example, departure due to academic results. We perceive these changes over the month as a very clear outflow related to the institution's "extremist" status. Thus, we started the academic year with 1600 students. This includes the specialized schools at EHU. And as of March 1, when our second semester began, we had 1129 students.

Thus, at this moment, there are about 1000 students at the university. 100 left due to its "extremist" status.

— How many Belarusian citizens are currently among your students?

— The student composition is as follows: humanities, social science, and art programs consist of 74% Belarusians.

The School of Information Technologies also consists of 70% Belarusians, in the School of Business Economics, they make up about 60–65%.

— So, around 70% overall?

— Yes, 70–75%.

— Regarding students living in Belarus. It is reported that there have been searches and pressure on them in Belarus. Do you have such information? Can you confirm it?

— Yes. But it must be said that searches or interrogations of EHU students are not directly related to this label — the "extremist" status. EHU has always had this problem with the Belarusian authorities — EHU students were visited or invited to institutions for "interviews." So, this was long before any "extremism" problems arose.

During Christmas or summer vacations, "meetings" and "interviews" were held with specific students. We had a hypothesis that some students were questioned not because they were EHU students, but also because they were involved in some active pursuits, non-governmental organizations, etc. Such calls and interrogations have always existed. Now there are more of them, and we know about them. A total of about 10 cases. This mainly concerns distance learning students. But, fortunately, many distance learning students are not in Belarus. When we were preparing for this crisis, let's call it that, we knew that about 30% of EHU's total student body were distance learning students. But then we found out that the real figures, specifically for Belarus, are much lower, about 10%.

And some of them ceased their studies. And it must be said that those who terminated their study agreements, as we predicted, were distance learning students. Thus, those who are in Belarus stopped their studies. And among those who are in Lithuania, in Vilnius, there are about 10 cases of study termination.

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