MUMBAI: Even as an Air India Boeing landed in China on Friday to evacuate Indians from Wuhan, a few students don’t want to board it.

Two PhD candidates from Maharashtra, Girish Patil (29) and Chandradip Jadhav (29), studying at the College of Materials and Metallurgy in

of Science and Technology, have cited financial constraints as a reason. “We belong to lower middleclass families. If we travel now, we will have to incur expenses on our return,” said Patil, whose family, originally from Jalgaon, live in Dhule. Both support their families with scholarship money. “Our families are poor and dependent on us. We can’t waste money on travel,” said Patil. “We have seen many diseases in India and are not afraid of this one.”

Patil and Jadhav are among six Indian students now in their

. Two others chose to fly back to India. “We are comfortable here. Embassy officials are in touch on a messaging app,” said Patil. “The university has given us an induction cooker and a microwave oven. We can step out for four hours a day to buy utilities. Though the canteen is open, we make our own meals. The streets have fewer people now, so it is a bit scary sometimes,” said Jadhav, whose family too live in Dhule. Their scholarship funds were released in advance this month.

Patil and Jadhav travelled to China last November to pursue their course in material science and engineering. Many Chinese and Vietnamese students left the dormitory once a three-week vacation started on January 16, to join their families in Lunar New Year celebrations. After Wuhan’s lockdown following the virus outbreak, 50 students from various countries have stayed back. Patil and Jadhav said they chose to pursue PhD in China after their applications back home were rejected by universities several times.

Patil, who has teaching experience and published papers to his credit, was put off by the requirement of having a PhD entrance test as a qualifier for research. He completed his BSc from Pune University and MSc from North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon. Jadhav, on the other hand, failed to crack PET and therefore chose to study abroad. They chose China over other countries as it has good research infrastructure and their supervisors were highly qualified in their areas of interest.