Andijan Medical Institute restores cancelled rent compensation applications

Kun.uz received several complaints from students of Andijan State Medical Institute. According to them, the university administration informed all students living in rental accommodation outside the dormitory that half of their November rent would not be reimbursed.

They were also told that all previously submitted applications had been deleted from the system and that a new application had to be submitted for December.

“Because there aren’t enough dormitory places for all students, the state reimburses rent based on contract housing – provided all documents are correctly prepared. This means the homeowner gives consent, and the necessary document is issued by the tax system. At the beginning of November, my classmates and I completed this paperwork and submitted our applications, and they were accepted.

“We were supposed to receive the money at the end of the month. But the November payment did not come. On the morning of 2 December, a message came to the group: ‘the payment for November has been cancelled, meaning it will not be issued’. All applications submitted until now – September, October, November – have been cancelled,” said one senior-year student.

Another student said:

“To help my parents with rent, I signed the contract in November. Unfortunately, they suddenly said they won’t pay. The tutor delivered the message. Now we’re told to submit new applications. It was already difficult to travel back and forth, skip classes and manage to submit the documents. And now they want us to submit everything again. We don’t know what to do.”

Another student said the institute’s administration explained that the November payments were not issued because “the budget had not allocated funds”.

“When we asked why, they said the state didn’t provide money for November. But we never heard anything official confirming that the budget hadn’t allocated funds. How are we supposed to know the state didn’t allocate the money – or whether the funds were possibly misappropriated?

“There are many problems at the institute, but most students don’t speak up. If you go to the administration with a complaint, they focus on punishing the complainant – not fixing the issue. They start demanding explanation letters, or deliberately making classes difficult (preventing participation in midterms, giving low marks in practical sessions),” the student said.

Students also said it was suspicious that such cancellations were happening specifically at Andijan State Medical Institute, not at other higher education institutions.

According to the institute’s official statement on its Telegram channel, a working group was formed to investigate the situation. The review found shortcomings, which were addressed, and disciplinary measures were taken against the responsible officials. It was also confirmed that November payments would be issued.

Kun.uz contacted the Ministry of Higher Education for clarification.

According to the Minister’s spokesperson, Nazokat Abdukodirova, the cancellation of applications at ASMI was linked to dormitory spaces being reserved for foreign students.

“Universities have dormitories. If these dormitories have empty places that students are not using, the electronic platform interprets the empty space as ‘students are not coming’, and automatically rejects rent reimbursement.

“In Andijan, there are many foreign students. Their admission process is slightly different and continues even in December. ASMI pre-reserved empty dormitory places for foreign students, but no one was actually living there. So the platform also registered these places as empty. Because of this, the system rejected the applications.

“There is a solution. In September and October, institute officials submitted the required request: ‘We have such a situation – because some places are reserved for foreign students, the dormitory is full for our students, so please reimburse those living in rental housing.’ They submitted this for September and October, but not for November. That is why the November payment was not issued.

“Now the institute administration will submit the request again, and the money will be paid. That is the situation,” the spokesperson said.

She added that students will not need to resubmit applications for November – the payments will be processed based on previously submitted data.