Kate Otterbein / XFM News
It’s been almost two weeks since the Russian attacks on Ukraine. It has rattled the world but especially caused some financial anxiety for Russian and Ukrainian Fanshawe students.
“I am highly anxious about it to be honest because I have some relatives who live in Ukraine,” says student Arina Zelenskaya, who is from Kazakhstan. Although she is not from Russia, the country is right next door and she gets affected by the plummeting currency. “Russia’s economy is falling apart and where I live, Kazakhstan, we’re really dependent on rubles. I’m scared to wake up broke.”
Part of the sanctions that were applied was that Russian banks can no longer use Swift, which is a messenger for banks and how Zelenskaya is able to get money over to her Canadian bank account to pay for her schooling.
“My father called me one night and said ‘we have to pay college tuition right now’ because they could have switched off Swift, which they eventually did,” says Zelenskaya.
Although Zelenskaya was able to frantically pay for her second semester as a January intake student, not everybody can. Fanshawe College has some supports available for those who are struggling.
“We’ll be talking to students on a case by case basis because every student’s scenario is different,” says Janice Lamoureux, Fanshawe’s Dean of Students. “Some students can make partial payments based on the savings that they have, some students cannot. We will be working with students to determine if they will be able to secure a part-time position over the next number of months and talk about when they could start making payments on account.”
Lamoureux says they understand the uncertainty right now and they can work individually with each student to apply exceptions to the fee due dates until Swift is back up and running.
“We are currently working on developing a bursary for students impacted by not having access to funds from their home country. We will be able to provide some information to students when they come forward,” says Lamoureux.
For those who are affected by the situation in Ukraine, counselling is available through Counselling and Accessibility Services. To talk to Fanshawe about extending payments or applying for a bursary, you can contact Lamoureux through email at deanofstudents@fanshawec.ca.
Comments