Awatif Abuzgaia and her husband Baset Elzagallaai are international students from Libya who say the conflict in their home country of Libya is taking a toll on them. (CBC)

More than 500 Libyans are studying at campuses across Canada, but the ongoing conflict in their home country is taking a toll on some of them.

Awatif Abuzgaia and her husband Baset Elzagallaai are international students from Libya. She is studying for a master's in pathology and he is doing a doctorate in pharmacology at the University of Western Ontario.

Both say the civil unrest has made it very difficult to concentrate on their education when their families are in harm's way.

"I spend all the day just thinking how they live 'cause I heard from the media Misrata is surrounded," she said. "People [are] dying every day."

Rebels and government forces have been fighting each other since the civil unrest began mid-February. On Saturday, Moammar Gadhafi loyalists shelled the rebels' main front line outpost of Ajdabiya as well as Misrata, killing dozens of rebels.

Abuzgaia said her plan was to submit her thesis this month but she says she hasn't written a single word in a month and a half.

Elzagallaai is conducting research that could make prescription drugs safer, but the crisis in Libya could interrupt that. The Libyan government has been paying for the couple's education but the money is about to run out.

"We received an email from the Canadian office here saying that they have enough funds for us until May," Elzagallaai said.

The Canadian organization that distributes foreign scholarship money says it's doing what it can for foreign students. Libya has told officials in Canada that more money's coming, but so far nothing arrived, the CBC's Philip Lee-Shanok reported.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government says it's considering extending the students' study permits or altering the student visas to allow Libyan students to find work off campus so they can support themselves and continue their education.