April 23, Pozirk. Vilius Šadauskas, rector of Vilnius-based European Humanities University (EHU), described university’s “extremist” designation by Belarus as a serious challenge for students and lecturers from Belarus.
Students and lecturers may face persecution once they cross the border into Belarus because of their connections to EHU, he told lrt.
“Uncertainty and fear forces students to choose to stay here [in Lithuania] despite financial and other difficulties,” he said.
The extremist designation may force some students to quit studies or seek transfer to other schools, he noted, adding that he expected the number of students from Belarus to drop significantly.
Šadauskas said that EHU seeks to attract students from other countries to maintain financial stability.
At present, Belarusians account for 74 percent of EHU students, he rector noted.
Dźmitryj Bryloŭ, a departmental chief at the Prosecutor General’s Office of Belarus, defended the designation earlier this month, claiming that the exiled university provides support to radical politicized groups and destructive foreign NGOs and is used by state security agencies to cause damage to Belarus.
EHU was founded in Minsk in 1992, but the Alaksandar Łukašenka government banned it in 2004, forcing it to relocate to Lithuania.
According to its website, EHU receives support from the European Union, the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the governments of the Netherlands and Iceland, and other donors.
