First stranded in Ukraine, now at home

The agonising tales of Indian medical students, who've returned from war-torn Ukraine, haven't ended with their safe return home. It has only marked the beginning of a period of distress over losing a crucial academic year. Even as the Maharashtra government and the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) are working on offering a temporary three-month online module to these students, many continue to do what they can in the hope of being permanently accommodated in Indian medical colleges.

Sahil Pal, 20, a resident of Goregaon, was among the batch of students who returned to India on March 4. Pal is a second year MBBS student from Zaporozhye State Medical University, Zaporozhye in south-eastern Ukraine. "Our university started online classes from March 21. The classes are regular, but the problem we are facing has to do with the lack of practical knowledge." He added, "Our parents are scared and still in trauma, thinking about students who lost their lives [in Ukraine]. We hope to get seats in our respective states. We are even ready to appear for entrance exams. But, we'd need admissions in the course year that we are currently pursuing."

Sahil Pal, 20, a second year MBBS student from Zaporozhye State Medical University in south-eastern Ukraine, said he is willing to give an entrance exam, but wants admission in the course year that he is currently pursuing. Pic/Anurag Ahire

Pune resident Avishkar Mulay, 21, a third-year undergraduate medical student at Bukovinian State Medical University in Chernivtsi, said that he is hearing that students like him cannot be accommodated in Indian medical colleges. "We have no idea when things will get back to normal in Ukraine. Our parents are not very keen on sending us back either. We are in fix for now. Our institute has started online classes, but it is not regular. We have lost stability and don't know how we will be able to complete the course."

MUHS shows the way

Speaking with mid-day, Minister for Medical Education and Cultural Affairs Amit Deshmukh said, "We are considering and working on giving these students ‘foster medical education'. MUHS is already engaging with their parents, and exploring all possibilities to help them." MUHS, Nashik, has started work on preparing the three-month online module for medical students from the state. These will be recorded videos by teachers and faculty members, prepared according to the course curriculum in Ukrainian institutes, informed Lt Gen (retd) Madhuri Kanitkar, vice-chancellor, MUHS.

A team of 15-20 faculty members recruited for MUHS' PG institution have been entrusted with the task of preparing and monitoring the online learning module. "The PG courses won't be starting now, so our faculty can help develop the module," said Kanitkar. She said the MUHS team studied the course curriculum in Ukraine, procured teaching materials, figured out the gaps and differences in the curriculum and decided to design the free online modules accordingly.

Elaborating on the modules, she added, "We will start offering these recorded sessions to students from the first week of April. Till March 24, over 900 students had registered with the university. We are expecting the numbers to go up to 2,000 through word of mouth. The number of students registering is dynamic and will keep increasing later."

AD Sawant, former VC of Rajasthan University, Jaipur

MUHS will keep adding to these modules. "We hope to give them exposure to the teaching and learning methodology here. If not now, this will be useful to them after four-five years or so, when they plan to return home." There will be no timetable for the sessions and registered students can access them, whenever they want to. Since the syllabi at Indian medical colleges is different from Ukraine, Kanitkar said it would be impossible to enroll these students here. "In India, students learn anatomy and medicine in the first year itself.

But FY medical students in Ukraine are taught Latin, Chemistry and very little medicine. Universities there also provide simulation-based expertise, unlike in India wherein students learn through interaction with patients." Kanitkar said they are also in talks with deans of different medical colleges and have discussed designing workshops for these students to give them more clinical exposure to conditions here. "We hope students feel cared for and learn something."

‘Find permanent solution'

Maharashtra has a total of 44 medical colleges run and owned by the state and central government, local civic bodies or by private bodies. These colleges have a total of 6,750 seats for the MBBS course. Of the 44 colleges, 43 have a total of 3,171 post-graduate (PG) seats. Admissions to the medicine course in India are conducted based on the scores secured in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (undergraduate). Students who cannot match the cut off marks for admissions here or can't afford the course fees, often choose countries like China, Russia and Ukraine to pursue medical education. As per the rules, those who wish to return to India after studying MBBS abroad have to appear for the mandatory Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE) to obtain the licence for practising medicine in India. But without a degree, most Ukrainian students are not eligible to appear for the FMGE.

AD Sawant, former Pro-VC of Mumbai University and former VC of Rajasthan University, Jaipur, said that a temporary solution may not help address the problem. "The government has to work out cooperative modules and collateral plans. They should study the curriculum there and help students finish the course here. Another option is getting Indian institutes to tie up with medical universities and colleges in Ukraine and conduct classes here; the degrees can be awarded by the parent university/institute in Ukraine to avoid conflict of interest."

Deepak Baid, former president of the Association of Medical Consultants (AMC), said that only the National Medical Commission, which frames specific norms for Indian Medical courses, can take a call on allowing these students to be accommodated. "Otherwise, these students will have to reappear for NEET and start afresh. But, that will not end the problem, as they will have to face high cut-offs and unaffordable fees. It was why they chose to pursue the course in Ukraine in the first place."