As a result of the war in Ukraine, plenty of students were forced to return to their respective countries. The majority of Indian immigrant students were pursuing medicine in Ukraine. It has recently come to our attention that Indian Medical Council is refusing to permit students who have returned from Ukraine.
Students who returned from Ukraine have filed petitions against Indian medical colleges that are persisting in not permitting the students to complete their medical courses in India.
India, as a democratic country, abides by the rules and regulations drafted in the Indian Constitution.
Why do Indian medical colleges refuse students from Ukraine?
The Indian Medical Council states that there is no such legislation to provide admittance to students from foreign institutions.
According to the Indian Medical Council Act (IMC) 1956 and the National Medical Council Act (NMC) 2019, no transfer can be permitted to any other university from any other country whatsoever for medical training or internship.
Despite that, the Indian government has levied its policy and granted a scheme to permit the final year students to complete their undergraduate degree in medicine.
The final year students who failed to complete their internship in Ukraine were granted a permit to continue their internship and has provided the course completion certificate on or before June 30, 2022. Following that, the scheme has allowed students from Ukraine to appear in the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination in India.
Notice issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)
Considering the petitions filed by students, the National Medical Council (NMC) consulted MEA. To resolve this, MEA issued a notice to permit final-year medical students to complete their courses and internships.
As per the global mobility mentioned by Ukraine, it is still not clear if the notice pertains to India. Public notice doesn’t have to be a back door to India to complete their course.
Major reasons for students’ immigrating from India
Reports say that students who are unable to meet the NEET scores opt to pursue medicine in other countries. Another possible reason could be a lack of proper funding.
In such a case, if the students from Ukraine are permitted to continue their course in a premium institution, this might cause chaos among the students who had to pursue their course in a non-premium institution because of low NEET scores. This might also affect the merit system and cause an injustice to Indian students.
Assuming the fact, if the students are permitted to attend a private institution, they will not be able to fund the course. Pursuing medicine in a private institution can be quite expensive.
Overall, allowing students back from Ukraine could jeopardize the country’s medical education standards.
Supreme Court hearings
Petitions filed by students are set to be heard by the supreme court. Most probably, the students who filed the petition are 1st year to final year medical students from Ukraine. The judgement is yet to be announced.
