MBBS Abroad - No Cure For Their Problem

Students enrolled in medical colleges in China can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel; those enrolled Ukraine are hanging by a thread.

- Pritha Roy Choudhury

Neeraj Santosh had come very close to achieving his goal. By February 24, when Russia invaded Ukraine upsetting all his plans and snatching away a career, he had just completed fifth year at the Zaporizhzhia State Medical University, Zaporizhzhia, south-east Ukraine. He had just another year to go before he could return for internship in India.

Santosh had left at the very end. Transport problems began as soon as the war started and students were stranded. Also, the decision to abandon his education was not one he could take lightly or quickly. Now stranded in a country being ripped apart by war, Santosh spent the next few weeks just focusing on surviving until the government's Operation Ganga fetched him home.

Whatever relief Santosh felt upon reaching Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, on May 7 was extremely short-lived. He still had two semesters of his medical programme left, the war wasn't ending. Although the universities in Ukraine are calling the students back assuring them of care and protection, students are scared to return to a war-torn country. Plus, the Indian government is not allowing them to return. They are scared they [the Indian government] will not be able to bring the students back, said Santosh who does want to go back.

Over the past two years, as the pandemic disrupted all education, two sets of students have had it especially bad medical students in China and Ukraine. Indian students enrolled in Chinese universities came home at the start of Covid-19 in 2020. Since then, students from many other countries have returned to class but not Indians who continue to attend online. However, things are now looking up with the Chinese foreign ministry saying the process for the return of Indian students has begun.