to 4000 per year while living expenses for students lie somewhere between 800 and 1500 with shared accommodation food and transportationsince april last year when italy was hit hard by the pandemic the number of indian students dropped sharply now with a stringent travel ban in place and the nonrecognition of the indian vaccines in the country the numbers this year are likely to be very small but many like varma believe that the low cost of education availability of scholarships and employment opportunities post graduation are long term factors which will draw indian students back once the pandemic situation improvesfor ambika subhash who went to milan in september 2020 for a masters degree in human resources management at the university of milan the scholarships and part time jobs opportunities available for international students in italy were a big draw and after she gets the second vaccine dose in august she hopes to make a short trip to her hometown bengaluru since as a student she has a resident permit for italyhowever for many indian students who had rushed back home from italy to be with their families during the second covid wave in india and others who have received admission in italian universities in 2021 the situation is far from upbeatsanjay mishra who was selected for a masters program in forestry and natural resources management at the university of padua last year is now worried about being able to get there before his classes start on september 15 italys travel ban for india has not been lifted and students like me in north india are not even able to submit our visa applications to vfs the agency which handles the processing of documents he saidafter submitting all the papers the process of being granted a student visa could take up to three weeks mishra is also concerned over the fact that the italian government does not recognise any of the indian covid19 vaccines mishra who is a recipient of the erasmus mundus joint masters scholarship which is a grant of 49000 covering travel tuition and personal allowance for two years will not be able to defer his course to next year and since his area of studies requires laboratory work it will be tough to start online classes repeated emails to the italian embassy in india and the indian mission in italy have not yielded much hope for him so faron june 18 italys ministry of health extended its restrictions on travelers who have stayed or transited via india in the past 14 days till july 30 additionally even those exempt from the restrictions have the requirement of mandatory testing for covid19 and isolation at designated hotels upon arrival in italy meanwhile on june 26 italy had permitted its residents or citizens with registry of resident italians abroad to travel to the country from india however there is no official update yet on the expected timeline of the travel ban being eased