Reaction to Syrian student op-ed: Calls for corrections
On Sunday, 31 August, we published an op-ed titled “Syrian Christian students in Hungary may be forced to return to Syria to face certain death”. Today, we have received a reaction to the original post, which we are sharing without changes below.
“While the article addresses important concerns about Syrian students in Hungary, it contains several factual inaccuracies and harmful generalisations that require correction.
1. Oversimplified sects framing
The article presents the Syrian conflict through an oversimplified Christian vs. Muslim lens, failing to acknowledge that multiple minorities face severe persecution. Recent official documentation contradicts this narrow framing:
- This page, which documents “1,300 people, most of them civilians from the Alawite minority and Christians, were killed by Islamist security forces,” explicitly mentions both Christians and Alawites as victims.
- Euronews report (July 2025)Â documents specific persecution of Syria’s Druze minority, reporting “over 1,000 people killed” and “almost 130,000 displaced” in recent violence targeting Druze communities.
- Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service policy (June 2025)Â officially recognises that “certain groups, such as the LGBTIQ+ community and Alawites, may be at increased risk,” assigning special risk profiles for asylum assessments.
Syria’s religious landscape is far more complex than a Christian-Muslim binary. The persecution affects Christians, Alawites, Druze, and other minorities, and presenting it otherwise misrepresents the reality of Syrian sectarian violence.
2. Incorrect claims about study and scholarship access
The article claims that Syrian Muslims had easier access to bachelor’s programs in Syria and therefore came to Hungary primarily for graduate studies, while Christians were supposedly blocked from undergraduate education. Evidence shows that Syrian Christians have accessed higher education within Syria itself. Aid to the Church in Need (Source 1, Source 2) reports supporting “up to 300 Syrian university students in war-torn Homs” and notes that since 2011, the organization “has given more than £3.2 million to support school and university places” for Syrian Christian students studying within Syria.
While it is true that some Syrian Christians may face economic or other challenges that can prevent them from accessing bachelor’s programs, this is not a universal experience generalizable to all Christians in Syria. The existence of Syrian Christian university students within the country demonstrates that educational access, while potentially difficult due to wartime conditions, was not systematically blocked based on religious affiliation.
Scholarship preference claims mentioned in the article also misrepresent how the different scholarship systems actually work, as there are different scholarship pathways:
- Stipendium Hungaricum (SH): Students must apply through Damascus University as the official “sending partner,” which is responsible for selecting and nominating students to Tempus through specific criteria. You can see the official info here by searching for ‘Syria’ under the partners section. It is also worth noting that SH in Syria does not specify that a specific religion is allowed to apply. All students in Syria can apply regardless of their religious backgrounds. You can find the most recent Call of Application for 2024-2025 and also the one for 2022-2023 here. Both of these documents (and if you go to previous announcements) do not mention religion as a criterion.
- Scholarship Programme for Christian Young People (SCYP): This Hungarian government program works through “cooperation between the State Secretariat for Persecuted Christians and local Christian churches in crisis regions,” requiring candidates to have “an official letter of recommendation from their local church confirming that they are an active member of that church.” This allows access to programs from bachelor’s to PhD programs specifically for persecuted Christians from various countries (not only Syria).
The key difference is institutional process, not religious discrimination. Syrian Christian students apply to bachelor’s programs through SCYP because it operates through church recommendations rather than the Damascus University system, while other students (regardless of religion) must go through the Damascus University sending partner system, which focuses on graduate nominations.
Using the article’s logic, one could equally argue that SH students are “blocked” from bachelor’s programs and must “struggle through oppression in Syria” to complete undergraduate degrees before accessing graduate scholarships. However, this would be equally misleading as both pathways represent legitimate institutional mechanisms with different eligibility criteria and processes.
Damascus University official nomination lists for the Hungarian scholarship program (2023–2024)Â also show that the Syrian government in the past few years only nominated students for Master’s and PhD programs, which explains why students cannot apply to bachelor programs and only to MA and PhD under SH.
For the year 2022, a comprehensive list of scholarship recipients was posted, containing hundreds of Syrian students, with the vast majority pursuing graduate degrees (MA/PhD), and notably includes no bachelor’s level students. This suggests that the Syrian Sending Partner did not even nominate BA students.
Although the previous links regarding this correction are provided in Arabic, I trust you will be able to check them independently.
3. Harmful and inaccurate generalisations
Most concerning is the article’s characterisation of Syrian Muslim students as “persecutors” who “can stay and work simply because they already have a bachelor’s degree before arriving.” This language is both factually incorrect and deeply harmful. It falsely assumes all Syrian students who are not Christians support the current regime when many also fled Syria due to political opposition, lifestyle choices, or other forms of persecution. It also ignores shared struggles, as all Syrian students in Hungary face the same challenging immigration law changes regardless of religious background.
The reality is that students from all backgrounds face the same structural barriers in continuing their education. The previous Syrian government only nominated students who were physically located in Syria for PhD programs under SH, even requiring specific documentation from the Immigration Office in Syria to verify physical presence (See Call for Application links above).
This meant that Syrian students in Hungary – regardless of religious background – who completed Master’s degrees could not receive nominations for PhD studies. After graduation, these students face the same difficult choice: find alternative opportunities elsewhere due to Hungary’s challenging immigration laws, or return to Syria, where they may face various forms of persecution or danger.”
Read the original op-ed below: