Neeraj Santosh was very close to succeeding in his mission. He had just finished his fifth year at the Zaporizhzhia State Medical University in Zaporizhzhia, southeast Ukraine, when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, disrupting all of his goals and stealing his career. Just one more year would pass before he could go back to India for an internship. At the very end, Santosh left. Due to transportation issues, students were left stranded as soon as the war started. Additionally, he could not make the decision to stop his schooling swiftly or lightly. Santosh spent the next three weeks merely concentrating on survival until the government’s Operation Ganga brought him home. He was now stranded in a nation torn apart by conflict.
Santosh’s sense of relief upon arriving at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, on May 7 was incredibly fleeting. The conflict wasn’t going to end, and he still had two semesters of his medical degree to complete. Students are reluctant to return to a country that is at war, despite the universities in Ukraine urging them back to reassure them of their care and protection. Additionally, the Indian government is preventing their repatriation. Santosh, who does want to return, said, “They [the Indian government] are afraid they won’t be able to get the students back.”
Two groups of students, in particular, have suffered throughout the past two years as the pandemic has disrupted all academics: medical students in China and Ukraine. At the beginning of Covid-19 in 2020, Indian students who had been studying in Chinese universities returned home. Since then, many students from other nations have returned to class, but Indian pupils who are still attending online have not. The Chinese foreign ministry recently announced that the procedure for the return of Indian students has started, thus things are currently looking up.
However, there is still no strategy for people who left Ukraine. Around 20,000 Indian students had been removed from Ukraine, the ministry of finance notified parliament in July. 1 387 of them were paying back their college loans, which currently have an outstanding sum of Rs. 133.38 crores.
MBBS Ukraine: ‘All the money is gone
The National Medical Commission (NMC), which oversees medical education in India, has rejected the admission requests of the Ukrainian students who have returned. If someone seeks to finish their education abroad, NMC mandates that they must spend at least 18 months in that country in order to be eligible to take the Foreign Medical Graduates Exam. Graduates from foreign medical schools must pass the FMGE in order to practise medicine in India.
This is a challenge for Ambarish (name changed upon request). “According to the NMC, we must spend at least 18 months in any country—European or otherwise—before attending a university there. Because things are so challenging here, I will have to reapply for admission in the fifth year, he remarked. Ambarish had travelled to Ukraine on a student loan with pledged collateral. “Every penny has been spent. How can I make new loan arrangements? I was dying to return to India and work here. I don’t want to sign up for the fifth year once more.
Now, if I can get accepted, I’ll enrol for two semesters, or sixth year, and work wherever I go in the nation,” he stated. Foreign medical students who have already graduated from their university, according to NMC, are eligible to sign up for an internship in their respective states. They will receive the same stipend and work on an equal basis with Indian students who are doing internships.
Indian Students In Ukraine: Another country
Third-year National Pirogov Memorial Medical University student Amit Kumar has requested his transcripts. He intends to submit applications to Russian medical schools. He claims that places like Hungary and Poland are “extremely expensive,” and that places like Georgia and Armenia are “war-prone,” thus he does not wish to visit them. He has selected Russia, but he is hesitant because of the linguistic barrier. We are looking for institutions and universities that provide the entire programme in English rather than Russian, the man stated. Selling a piece of land has already netted Kumar’s parent’s Rs. 32 lakh.
Additionally, Kumar states that the transcript will be the basis for his admission. The college will choose which semester we can be admitted to after the authorities have determined whether or not the credits match.
On August 8, China’s ministry of foreign affairs posted on social media that plans were being made to call back all foreign students. All overseas students will be able to enrol in August under the new visa regime, which will apply to all colleges and majors. Prepare yourself and get in touch with your university for a NOC to hasten the visa application procedure. Ask the university again after the new policy is officially revealed if it is unable to respond at this time. The news has the students in a frenzy.
It will only take Pranay Khaturia, a student at Wenzhou Medical University, two more years to complete her MBBS and internship year because she is currently in her fifth year. With Kathuria doing all of her coursework online, it was a challenging year. He took online classes as well as those offered by his university, like many other people, to get ready for the FMGE. Bihari native Aamish Hashmi studied at Zhejiang Chinese Medical University in Hangzhou, China. His fourth year is now complete. Additionally, he got paperwork from the university concerning returning. He has already completed the forms and mailed them back. He is anxiously anticipating the call to finish the visa application.
“The visa application procedure has already begun in Mumbai, and it will soon also begin in Delhi. As a result, people who are now doing an internship will be summoned first, followed by those who are in their sixth year, added Hashmi. “They provided the procedure to be followed, and I have mailed the form. Later on, they’ll let us know. Hashmi wants to go to India for graduate school. “I’m getting ready to take the FMGE test. I’ve been taking FMGE coaching programmes in Gautam Nagar for the past eight months in Delhi,” he stated.
The Covid-19 pandemic was awful for everyone, but it was especially bad for Indian students attending medical schools in China and the Ukraine. While conditions are improving for students in China, there is no hope for those studying in Ukraine.
