Medical students back from Ukraine stuck between a rock and a hard place

Protests and strikes by students seeking accommodation in Indian medical colleges have so far not yielded any assurance from the NMC, Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

The Indian medical students who were forced to return from Ukraine amid the war during “Operation Ganga” are still stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Protests and strikes by students seeking accommodation in Indian medical colleges have so far not yielded any assurance from the National Medical Commission (NMC), Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Recently, 60 students and nearly 500 parents sat on a hunger strike for four days at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, before moving to Jantar Mantar in the capital city. Under the aegis of Parents’ Association of Ukraine MBBS Students (PAUMS), representatives across 26 states have been seeking induction within the Indian medical education system.

“Our basic demand is that all the remaining medical students, who returned from Ukraine, should be accommodated in Indian colleges because it is not only unsafe to send them back to Ukraine but also because only 20-21 students per college need to be accommodated,” said R B Gupta, president of PAUMS.

According to PAUMS, of the 22,800 students who returned from Ukraine, as many as 4,800 were from non-medical streams.

“That leaves roughly 18,000 Indian medical students who returned from Ukraine. Around 3,000 of them have graduated and were absorbed for internship within the country by the NMC, while another 2,000 students plan to pursue their career. For the remaining 13,000-odd medical students, roughly 610 medical colleges in India need to absorb only 20-21 students each,” Gupta added.

The NMC lists 612 public and private medical colleges in the country on its website.

However, medical education experts stated this is not an easy task.

“It takes multiple inspection visits and several months or even years by the NMC and other authorities for medical colleges to add seats. This cannot be done overnight. Moreover, if students who returned from Ukraine are accommodated, what stops those still struggling to go back to China and other destinations to ask for such induction in Indian colleges?” asked M Kalidhas, director of Mediseats Abroad, a medical education consulting firm.

Asked about the status of Ukraine returnees being inducted in medical colleges within the country, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Bharati Pravin Pawar, said that there are no such provisions in the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, and the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, as well as the regulations to accommodate or transfer medical students from any foreign institutes to Indian colleges. Therefore, no permission had been given by the NMC to transfer or accommodate any foreign medical students in any Indian institutes/universities.

According to Pawar, foreign medical students or graduates are either covered under Screening Test Regulations, 2002 or Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations, 2021, as the case may be.

“The NMC, for the betterment of Indian student pursuing medical studies abroad, vide circular dated 04.03.2022 has allowed foreign medical graduates with incomplete internship due to such compelling situation which is beyond their control such as war, Covid-19 etc. to complete their remaining part of internship in India subject to the condition that such candidates must have cleared FMGE (screening test), which is mandatory for Indian students with foreign medical qualification to practise medicine in India,” Pawar had replied in Lok Sabha.

Besides, the Ukraine-returned medical students have been denied transcripts by most universities.

“We have been applying for a transcript for some time but the university is not responding. We have heard that the Indian embassy in Kyiv has taken up the matter but if we don’t get a transcript, we will continue to lose precious months of practical medical education,” said a Pune-based Indian medical student enrolled with Bogomolets National Medical University in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

Ukrainian universities are believed to be denying issuing transcripts since they do not wish to lose foreign students.

“Instead, universities like Bogomolets and Kharkiv National Medical University are in talks with neighbouring countries such as Poland, Georgia, Slovakia and Hungary to start offshore campuses where their foreign students can come and continue medical education,” said Gupta.

However, experts like Kalidhas doubt whether such offshore campuses will promise the crucial practical aspect of medical education.

“There was a November 18, 2021, notification by the NMC that put restrictions on transfer of programmes from one university to another. But this may not apply for most of the students, who returned from Ukraine and had enrolled much earlier. Hence, once they receive transcripts, they are safe to choose to enroll in some other medical college. Even Russia is believed to have offered to absorb Indian students. But as far as offshore campuses of Ukrainian universities are concerned, we do not know what kind of infrastructure they may offer and if it will be worthwhile for Indian students to continue there,” Kalidhas added.