Number of Ukrainian Jewish Students Lower, Statistics Indicate

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service)

A report on the number of Jewish students studying in the universities in the Ukraine was submitted to the recent conference of Jewish students held at Kiev.

In 1923, the report says, there was a very large percentage of Jewish students at the universities At the medical faculties they formed about 60 per cent to 75 per cent. of the total number of students, in the medical schools, 60 per cent., in the polytechnics, 60 per cent., in the art schools, 60 per cent., and in the veterinary and agricultural institutes, 10 per cent. to 20 per cent.

In the Medical Institute in Kiev alone the number of Jewish students was 2,000.

At present the number of Jewish students is much smaller. This is due not only to the new law regulating the admission of students to the universities which was passed in 1924, but largely to the fact that many of the students have left the universities on their own account and have taken up trading or manual labor, or have emigrated, the report states. Of the 2,000 students who were registered in 1920 at the Medical Institute at Kiev, only 600 took their finals. The rest had left even before the passing of the new law regulating the admission of students. Many were forced by circumstances to give up studying in order to return to their native towns to help maintain their families.

Nevertheless, the percentage of Jewish students is still very high. Of the 20,000 students at the university college in Keiv, there are over 6,000 Jews. The percentage of Jewish students at the individual faculties has decreased considerably. At the medical faculty, for example, the percentage has decreased from 72 per cent. in 1922 to 45 per cent.