MBBS boom versus merciless bomb

Ukraine hosts close to 20,000 Indians, of which 18,000 are medical students. According to data from Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science, around 80,000 international students pursue studies in Ukraine with Indians making up a quarter of the total foreign students.

Why there has been a “mad rush” of the Indian students for MBBS course in Ukraine and Russia? What attracts them to these countries? Some important reasons are given below:

Scarcity of seats in India: India provides a very limited seat for medical candidates despite the huge number of students interested to pursue the course. The country has 84,000-odd MBBS seats and 1.61 million candidates had registered for NEET exams last year for these seats.

Affordability: Rahul, an Education Consultant compared the cost of education between India and the two countries.

“In India, if a student does not get enrolled in a government college, private colleges charge anything between 7.5 million to 10 mullion rupees for a duration of six years. For the same duration in Ukraine, students have to spend close to 2.5-3/5 million rupees that includes their staying and mess costs. This difference makes it financially viable for them.”

Quality Education: Ukraine is known across the globe for providing high-quality education and this attracts a lot of international students including Indians who look for quality education in their own country but fail to afford it.

No entrance exam: One of the major reasons to study medicine in Ukraine is that no entrance exam is conducted by famous medical institutions to provide a seat to any student. Whereas in India the situation is just opposite. Hence the students prefer Ukraine.

Medical Infrastructure: Ukraine provides a standard medical infrastructure in all the medical colleges. This creates a conducive atmosphere for students to study.

English – medium of Instruction: Language is another important element that students give a thought to before going to take admission in any institution and in the case of medical courses it plays a very significant role. In all colleges of Ukraine, the only mode of instruction is English which is simple for students as they need not learn a foreign language.

Multicultural Environment: The medical students in Ukraine enjoy a multicultural environment as its institutions provide education to students from different countries with a variety of cultural backgrounds.

Global Recognition: The medical colleges in Ukraine and the degrees provided by them are recognized by worldwide medical councils including the World Health Council, Indian Medical Council, General Medical Council of UK, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, and European Council of Medicine. The MBBS institution in Ukraine has got an approval from global bodies like UNESCO and WHO.

High Rank: Ukraine ranks 4th in Europe for having the largest number of graduate and post-graduate specializations in medicine.

License to practice: Another major advantage of a degree from Ukraine is that the medical degree is recognized not only by the Indian National Medical Commission but also by several other European countries. These students can also return to India, become interns, and give the National Exit Test, earlier called the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination and practice as doctors within the country.

Fate of the Indian students: India is facilitating the evacuation of its citizens stranded in the east European country through its land border crossings with Romania, Hungary, and Poland following the closure of the Ukrainian airspace. The Indian government has named its evacuation mission “Operation Ganga.”

Till the war started between Russia and Ukraine, a vast majority of Indians was not aware of the fact that thousands of Indian students are studying in these countries. Now the spontaneous question that has been running in everyone’s mind is ‘Why do Indian students go to Russia and Ukraine to study medicine?’ After China and the Philippines, Ukraine is the third most popular destination for Indian students pursuing medicines.

Indian scenario: In December 2021, India had 596 medical colleges offering 88,120 MBBS seats. Only half of these are government colleges. To be eligible for a seat in these medical colleges, students are expected to appear for the National Eligibility Entrance Test. In 2021, more than 1.5 million students appeared for the NEET exams.

As only 88,120 were selected to study across medical colleges, other students had to get into dentistry, physiotherapy, ayurveda, homeopathy, and even pharmacy. Those who still wanted to pursue medicine either preferred to wait for a year or go abroad.

Questions: Common people ask:

• What will be the fate of the students who are still in Ukraine?
• What will these students do when they return to India?
• Will they dare to return to Ukraine and Russia after the war is over?
• What will happen to the money invested by the families of these students in Ukraine for their studies?
• Who will console the parents, siblings and family members for the loss of life, money and future of these students?
• Will they be able to continue their studies? Where and how?
• Will the federal and state governments do something to these students to get them absorbed into the existing medical colleges in India?

Rumors spread in India say that ‘most of these students are incapable of passing NEET exam; they cannot academically qualify in India for MBBS; and they are “dull students.”

If we are part of these “uncharitable judgments”, we need to stop it. All of us (government and people) need to find answers to the above questions and create a bright future for these students.