Missing Edinburgh student had failed honours exams

Missing Edinburgh student Yulia Solodyankina. Picture: submitted

The 22-year-old learned on 6 June that she would receive only an ordinary Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Edinburgh University.

The following day she was captured by CCTV at Buchanan Street bus station in Glasgow and has not been seen or heard from since.

A close friend, who asked not to be named, said Yulia had not passed her fourth-year exams, meaning she could not graduate with honours.

At what should have been her graduation ceremony on Monday, the official programme did not list her among the students receiving an honours degree.

Police believe that she may have gone to the Highlands, after leaving Edinburgh on 7 June, and travelling to Glasgow by bus.

Yulia, who speaks fluent English with a Russian accent, started studying physics at Moscow University but switched to Edinburgh, joining in the second year of the four-year degree.

Her friend said: “She was supposed to get a physics bachelor but apparently she didn’t pass her exams.”

Another source at the university confirmed that Yulia’s results were released the day before she disappeared.

Her disappearance has devastated friends and family in Russia.

Galina Galimova, her best friend at home in Moscow, said: “Unfortunately, neither me nor her parents have new information because the police do not tell us anything.

“I am lost for words, crying a lot and asking myself, ‘Why did this happen? How can life ever be the same again?’

“We have been friends for five years, before Yulia moved to Edinburgh. But still we remained best friends, chatting every day and visiting each other.”

Last weekend, Yulia’s boyfriend of six months, engineering student Antoine Dao, 21, revealed she had been “very stressed” during the exams.

Yulia’s father, Dmitry Solodyankin, last month said he had been told by his daughter that she had been awarded a 2.1 honours degree.

The 45-year-old said: “She usually got good grades.”

The search for Yulia is now focusing on the Highlands and islands of Scotland. Yulia and her mother visited Skye in April.

Chief Inspector Mark Patterson said: “It is now almost a month since Yulia was last seen, and we remain keen to speak to anyone who may have seen or heard from her since she went missing.”