Back Home Safely, Now Career Hangs In The Balance For Over 20,000 Indian Medical Students

Thousands of Indian students who returned to the country from a war-torn Ukraine see their future hanging by a thread.

Over 24,000 who had gone to Ukraine to pursue undergraduate medical courses are facing an uncertain future now.

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has left them with no option but to leave their studies midway and flee to India.

While most of the students have safely arrived in India, a few hundred are still stranded and efforts are on to evacuate them. Returning to Ukraine to continue their studies seems unlikely as of now as the military conflict doesn't seem to ease anytime soon. Even if the two countries arrive at a decision, it will take years to rebuild the country and return to normalcy due to massive destruction.

Difficult to resume studies in India

One big question facing the students is how they will continue their interrupted education, especially if the Ukraine crisis doesn¡¯t ease in the near term.

Rahul Gupta, a 20-year-old student in Ukraine, returned to India on March 4, and ever since, anxiety around his future is only making him more restless.

"We recently heard from our university that they will resume our studies through online classes from March 13. As of now, everything is shut there, be it the airport, transport, college, and hostel, and the situation is very bad. Today we received a notice from them that if online classes do not take place for some reason, there may be a chance for us to resume our classes at the university after summer holidays, which is in August," he told Indiatimes over a phone call.

Reuters

He said his future, like thousands of other students, looks extremely uncertain at the moment. "We may be given an option to go to some other country such as Poland, Romania, Georgia, or Germany to resume our studies but that will take a lot of time," he said, adding that he is waiting to get some more clarity from the university in the coming days before he makes a decision.

Ever since the students started returning to India, many politicians have demanded that the government should accommodate these students in the medical colleges in India. Even the Indian Medical Association (IMA), a body of private doctors in India, has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded that these students should be "adjusted as a one-time measure in existing medical schools in the country."

National Medical Commission (NMC), the regulator of medical education in India, has also recently issued a circular in which it has allowed such candidates who couldn't complete their one-year mandatory internship in their respective foreign countries due to war or the pandemic, to apply for the same in India.

However, these students will be required to first clear the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE).

"Govt could add additional seats for foreign students"

Chigurupati Kundhan Chowdhary, a resident of Hyderabad, returned to India on March 2, on an evacuation flight. He feels the war is a "small pebble on my path, but I'm determined to overcome it soon."

He added that many students aspire to complete the MBBS programme from a government medical college or from a good private medical college. "There are more than 450 government and private medical colleges in India, they can add additional seats for foreign students to continue the educational program."

Despite uncertainty around pursuing medicine in India, a hefty fee structure remains a concern for students who find it much cheaper to study abroad. In India, a medical student has to spend crores to get an MBBS degree. In foreign countries such as Ukraine, they can get a degree in a few lakhs.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi recently tweeted that private medical colleges will give 50 per cent seats at government college fees from the next academic session.

File Photo

He said that students from poor and middle-class families will collectively save about Rs 2,500 crore due to a recent decision of the government that private medical colleges will charge the same as government colleges for 50 per cent of their seats.

But as for accommodating all returnees in Indian colleges, that will be very knotty if not impossible.

It is just not the affordability of Ukrainian options but also the terrible demand-supply situation in India that sent students away in the first place.

Nearly 16 lakh students take NEET, some 8 lakh qualify, and then there are only 90,000-odd seats. There just aren¡¯t that many spare seats to be had for the 20,000-odd students who had gone to Ukraine.

Ayaan Qureshi, a 21-year-old, third-year student at the Vinnytsia National Medical University, returned to India just days ago. He is a resident of Hyderabad. He says that after the situation completely changed in Ukraine, he is faced with multiple dilemmas around his future studies.

"I don't know if my university will continue our studies, but they have asked us to hold on till March 13 and they will update us about the future of our studies. "If the situation does not cool down in the near future, I'll have to move on and look at other countries such as Kazakhistan, Romania, and Armenia.

"Recently I read that the state government of Andhra Pradesh is considering to give seats to students who have returned from Ukraine, but none of it is confirmed as of now. Of course, my family believes that it is best that I stay here and continue my studies, but all of it looks uncertain right now. I hope the Centre and State governments do something for the students," he told Indiatimes.

After fleeing a war zone, thousands of students are anxious about their future and expect the government to act for their future.

More than 40 thousand students, who had to return to India from China in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, are also victims of unforeseen circumstances.

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