Recently, a petition was filed by Indian medical students who were forced to leave Ukraine in the backdrop of escalated war tension with Russia, seeking to continue their studies in India. Considering the same, a bench headed by Justice Hemant Gupta issued a notice to the Centre and National Medical Council on the same petition. In its response, an affidavit was filed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Highlights
- The Centre refuses to admit students evacuated from Ukraine to medical college.
- Why do Indian students choose Ukraine as a medical study destination?
- What can we do to improve medical education in India?
- https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-in-midst-of-war-with-russia-why-are-indian-medical-students-going-back-to-ukraine-2986260
Centre on this matter considering that students who went to there to study were those with poor NEET scores said that allowing them to study in India then other students with equivalent or higher scores will take legal action and they won’t be able to afford the fee structure in the Indian medical colleges. The Centre also added that it will degrade the standard of education in India.
“It is humbly submitted that in case these students with (a) Poor Merit are allowed admission in premier medical colleges in India by default, there may be several litigations from those desirous candidates who could not get seats in these colleges and have taken admission in either lesser known colleges or have been deprived of a seat in medical colleges. Further, in case of affordability, if these candidates are allocated Private Medical Colleges in India, they once again may not be able to afford the fees structure of the concerned institution”, the affidavit said.
Why do Indian students prefer Ukraine for medical studies?
The death of Naveen, who went to Ukraine to study at Kharkiv National Medical University, raised pertinent questions in India as to why many students go to Ukraine to study Medicine. He was also the first Indian who was killed in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. After his death, his father said that despite scoring 97 per cent in his board exams, he couldn’t get a medical seat in India and was forced to go to Ukraine.
Apart from quality education being offered in Ukraine, the tuition fees are comparatively much lower than that in India. According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science in 2020, there were 24% of students from India out of their total population of overseas students.
State-run universities charge less compared to Indian private universities, and the quality of education is much better there. One more thing that makes Indian students go to Ukraine is that there is no examination to qualify to get admission to universities. This gives Indian students who do not score well in India an alternative and also fills the gap between Indian medical colleges and private institutions in India which charge high fees.
What can we do to improve our country’s medical education?
The foremost thing that we should do is to increase the number of medical seats in India. Then making proper guidelines and regulations about the fee structure. Quality education with affordability should be our top priority. Innovation in teaching methods is also one area, where India should work.
The health sector is very crucial, as we have seen in the case of covid 19, where it was felt that we need to improve the condition of our hospitals and education is a way to do that. A healthy nation is what India aims to achieve. What Indian students said Save our Future: Evacuated Indian students from Ukraine appeals to PM.
