UPEI nursing student Gloria Smith was looking forward to travelling to Egypt for a job placement. (CBC)

Four University of Prince Edward Island nursing students are disappointed that the school has cancelled their job placements in Egypt because it's not safe.

They were chosen to travel to Egypt in February as part of their fourth-year job placement, but now, the federal government is recommending against unnecessary travel to Egypt because of the political situation there.

“I was a little disappointed. I know safety is very important. Obviously, I don't want to go if it's unsafe,” student Gloria Smith said Wednesday.

“But I was still just disappointed that there's not a better political situation that wouldn't allow us to go there and have that political experience.”

Instead, the students will be working in hospitals on the Island.

Student Lindsay Williams said that won’t look as good on their resumes when they graduate this spring.

“Well, an opportunity like this doesn't come around very often. To go with a school, and a school that's recognized all around Canada, to go to a foreign country it just wouldn't happen very often,” she said.

Kim Critchley, dean of nursing at UPEI, was on leave and teaching in Egypt when the uprising hit its peak. She said it’s not safe to send students to the country, which is still experiencing violence.

UPEI dean of nursing, Kim Critchley, spent time in Egypt last year. (CBC)

“It's one thing for a professor to go, an adult to go. But it's a different situation to send students there to do something on behalf of the university,” she said.

“I mean, we are totally responsible for them and it would be negligent on our part to send students to a country where the travel advisory is saying please don't travel.”

The nursing department's relationship with Egypt began with the help of UPEI's new president, Abd-El-Aziz, who is from that country.

The trip would have been the university's first nursing placement there. Critchley said this will not be the last opportunity for nursing students to practice in Egypt. She said she's already planning placements there for next winter.