mumbai even as an air india boeing landed in china on friday to evacuate indians stuck in wuhan a few students have expressed their willingness to stay backtwo ph d candidates from maharashtra girish patil 29 and chandradip jadhav 29 both students of college of materials and metallurgy at the wuhan university of science and technology have cited their financial constraints as one of the reasons we belong to lower middleclass families if we travel now we will have to incur expenses on our return journey from india when the epidemic subsides said patil who is originally from jalgaon but his family is now settled in dhule the students also support their families back home with the scholarship moneyour families are poor and are dependent on us we could not have wasted money in travelling said patil we have seen many diseases in our country and are not afraid of this one he saidpatil and jadhav are among the bunch of six indian students who are currently staying in their universitys dormitory two others chose to fly back to india we are comfortable here the indian embassy officials are also in touch with us on a messaging app we want to reduce our expenses by staying here said patil who is pursuing research in lithiumsulphur battery applicationsthe students are currently spending their day reading reference papers for their research surfing on internet and watching movies the university gave us an induction and a microwave we can step out for four hours in the day to purchase utilities though the canteen is open in these breaks we are making our own meals the streets have fewer people now so it is a bit scary sometimes said jadhav who is from dhule their scholarship funds were also released in advance this month which is helping them manage their expenses said the students their families too are in regular touch and are aware of their decision to stay backboth the students travelled to china in november last year to pursue their doctoral studies in material science and engineering many chinese and vietnamese students left the dormitory once the threeweek vacation started on january 16 as they celebrate their new year with their families said a student after the citys lockdown following the outbreak of the virus 50 students from various countries have stayed backpatil who had teaching experience and had published papers to his credit was put off by the requirement of having a ph d entrance test as a qualifier for research he had completed his b sc from pune university and m sc from north maharashtra university in jalgaon jadhav on the other hand failed to crack the pet and therefore choose to study abroad they chose china over other countries as they have a good research infrastructure and their supervisors were highly qualified in their areas of interest