As Nepali students continue to return from the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Odisha, Nepal’s domestic universities have offered the returnees a chance to continue further studies by building on their credits at the Indian institute.

Most of the over 1,500 students enrolled in the KIIT have returned home and are unwilling to rejoin the institute until they are confident of their security there. They remain unconvinced even as the government of Odisha and the KIIT administration have repeatedly urged them to rejoin.

Targeting the students reluctant to return to the Bhubaneswar-based institute, Purbanchal University has decided to allow them to continue their remaining courses in the colleges under it.

“Any student who has returned to Nepal without completing his/her study can carry on the remaining study in the university through credit transfer,” reads the PU decision. The students, however, will have to fulfil the set criteria.

Officials at the Tribhuvan University, the country’s oldest and biggest, say they are also ready to welcome such students. “The TU has already decided to welcome the students from any programme [at the KIIT],” Mahananda Chalise, dean of the faculty of management at the university, wrote on Facebook.

Most students in the Odisha private deemed university have been enrolled in engineering programmes, followed by management courses and nursing, according to KIIT students.

The returnees have welcomed the offer from the Nepali universities and say they will be willing to pursue their remaining studies in Nepal. “If there are any colleges in Pokhara providing the degree I am pursuing, I would definitely join it,” said a fourth semester computer engineering student from Pokhara who returned home on Wednesday. “I don’t want to go back to KIIT.”

Another fourth-semester student from Gokarna, Kathmandu said his parents are also scared about sending him to India. “I thought I might return once there is a guarantee of safety. But my parents are strictly against it,” he said. “It would be great to get credit transferred to Nepali universities.”

Nepali KIIT students and various organisations are staging protests demanding justice for Prakriti Lamsal, a third-year BTech student from Butwal, who was found dead on Sunday evening after reportedly enduring persistent harassment from an Indian student from the same batch. They have also demanded action against the institute’s staff who manhandled them and forced them to leave their hostels.

Following Lamsal’s death, Nepali students staged a peaceful protest demanding justice. However, instead of addressing their concerns, the university administration ordered them to vacate the hostels.

Fellow Nepali students claimed that despite previous complaints, the university administration did not take action against the alleged perpetrator. Adhvik Srivastava, an Indian student, had repeatedly harassed Lamsal. Srivastava had made obscene videos of her and repeatedly blackmailed her, say the students.

Sharing their horrible experience in a press meet in Kathmandu on Friday, the Nepali students said they were beaten mercilessly and humiliated.

“A gym trainer beat up many students after entering their hostels and brandishing a knife,” said one of the students who was beaten. “We were forced to leave. Only we know how we were treated. Our return is impossible unless we are assured of safety.”

The KIIT administration was later forced to suspend its staff who mistreated and drove out Nepali students. It made an appeal to them to return, after the incident attracted huge criticism in Nepal and also in India. Similarly, Odisha Police had to register complaints against Srivastava.

The institute has also announced a special scholarship for Nepali students in memory of Lamsal.

On Saturday, Minister for Foreign Affairs Arzu Rana Deuba made a phone call to Mohan Charan Majhi, the Odisha chief minister, urging him to look into the matter promptly and to provide justice to the victim.

“He [Majhi] has informed me that the state of Odisha has taken this incident seriously and has formed a high-level investigation committee to ensure justice to Prakriti and take action against the guilty,” wrote Rana on X.