Nearly one-third of the Indian students among the about 18,000 who returned from Ukraine have applied for NEET-UG 2022 again, hoping to better their ranks and land affordable government medical college seats.
ARUSHI JAIN Jain had been in Ukraine for less than two months when the war with Russia broke out, altering the course of her future. Back in New Delhi now, she is struggling to chart a new course, a report by Aditi Tandon in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says
“I have again registered for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG) 2022,” says the 21-year-old, who will on July 17 write the test for the third time in three years.
Nearly one-third of the Indian students among the about 18,000 who returned from Ukraine have applied for NEET-UG 2022 again, hoping to better their ranks and land affordable government medical college seats.
“A large number of students who had just enrolled in Ukraine medical colleges have decided to write NEET-UG again rather than wait for things to change,” says Arushi, who had begun her six-year MBBS course in Ukraine on December 9, 2021.She returned to India in early March and has since been preparing for medical entrance.
Many of her friends have, meanwhile, changed streams, diversifying into allied health sectors like rehabilitation, physiotherapy, pharmacy, and even dentistry and paramedical courses.
In the past two months, 22,500 Indians came back from the war-torn country, most of them students The evacuees have formed an association to put pressure on the Health Ministry to act. Nearly 7,000 students submitted a memorandum to the PMO in mid-May urging absorption into local medical colleges as an exceptional measure. Things are no different for the new MBBS hopefuls with limited paying capacity at home.
In 2020, FMGE pass percentage of Bangladesh returned Indian MBBS degree holders was 35.8 as against 12.93 per cent for China, 16.01 per cent for Ukraine, 15.97 per cent for Russia, 33.7 per cent for the Philippines and 16.48 average of all countries.
“Parents are not keen to send wards to European countries neighbouring Ukraine because of the prevailing chaos. The region is hardly an option for Indian students in the foreseeable future and the load on domestic medical education is bound to rise phenomenally this year,” says Harish Kumar, member, Parents’ Association of Ukraine MBBS Students.
Even agents who have been facilitating Indian students with MBBS studies abroad say parents should refrain from sending their wards to Eastern Europe for studies this year. Additionally, education in Poland, Hungary, Romania and other EU nations is much costlier than in Ukraine.
An alternative nearer home
Asked what options new MBBS hopefuls have, Karan Sandhu an agent said “For a large number of students, Bangladesh is emerging as an alternative. Pass percentage of Bangladesh-returned Indian students writing the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (the licensure test foreign graduates must clear to practise in India) has been the highest for a while.
In 2020, FMGE pass percentage of Bangladesh returned Indian MBBS degree holders was 35.8 as against 12.93 per cent for China, 16.01 per cent for Ukraine, 15.97 per cent for Russia, 33.7 per cent for the Philippines and 16.48 average of all countries.
“Bangladesh’s cost-effective MBBS education, similar course and demographic mix as in India, a fair share of Indian faculty and absence of language barriers could make it a preferred destination for Bangladesh charges zero visa fee from Indians. That could be an added advantage,” a former official at the National Board of Examination which conducts the FMGE says.
The Ministry of Finance had said at one point it had asked the Indian Banks Association to discuss loan waiver for Ukraine returnees. As of December 31 last year, 1,319 students had availed of education loans worth Rs 121.61 crore to study in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, students are getting restive. Until the NMC reverts on whether it can raise MBBS seats (fixed under its own rules), evacuee students say they will continue attending online classes Ukraine colleges are offering to minimise the learning gap.Virtual instruction though is hardly any match for the physical clinical exposure of aspiring doctors.
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