There is a cloud of uncertainty over the future of Indian medical students returning from Ukraine. While some have returned, many are wondering about their academic career, whether back home or stuck there. Indian authorities said while this was a state subject, accommodating these candidates in home colleges was impossible.
According to the new rules of the Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate regulations, MBBS aspirants can take up to 10 years to complete the programme.
Apart from the minimum course work tenure of 4.5 years, candidates need to intern for two years: 12 months in the foreign medical institute where they are studying and another year of supervised internship in India. The MBBS programme in Ukraine lasts for six years.
“The stakes are highest for candidates in their third year and final year. There is no clarity on when universities will start and when we would be called back. We are all leaving the university right now with no clarity on our future,” said a third-year candidate from Zaporizhzhia State Medical University while waiting at the train station in Ukraine.
Close to 500 Indian students from this university in Kyiv were evacuated and taken to the Romania border. Sources in the National Medical Commission in India said the government’s priority currently was to bring back and ensure the safety of all the students.
“These students will have to wait and see how the situation unfolds over the next couple of weeks,” said an NMC official.
Most agencies that are in touch with students in Ukraine said candidates will have to “wait and watch”. “There is a lot of anxiety right now regarding evacuation. Students were allegedly misbehaved with at the Poland border but they are also worried about their future. Most want to go back when the situation is normal,” said Mahendra Zaware Patil who works with seven medical schools in Ukraine.
College principals in India said accommodating them in Indian medical institutes won’t be possible. While this is a state matter, we don’t have so many seats and also, colleges and the state would need to keep merit in mind, said a source. “Many of the students who leave India do so because they have a low NEET score. Even when the Covid pandemic broke out, students who were in China could not be placed in Indian institutes despite requests,” said a former MCI member.
What’s worse, many of the students in Ukraine were studying online during the Covid-19 pandemic and after having returned to Ukrai-ne after close to two years they are once again on their way back home. “There is no clarity on when they will complete their mandatory practical courseware. Some were in the middle of their internship after a long halt because of the Covid pandemic,” added Patil.
“This morning, we came out of our bunker and the university officials told us that we need to go to Lviv in two hours. We just packed and left,” said Vedanti Mulay, a first-year medical student from Pune. “There is nothing that our university officials told us about online classes or when we must return,” she added. “Right now, we just need to get home.”
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