In a setback to Indian medical students who returned from Ukraine after the war broke out there, the National Medical Council (NMC) of India has notified that it doesn’t recognise the ‘mobility programme’ being offered by the Ukrainian government for foreign medical students.
Ahead of the autumn semester starting from September 1, Ukrainian universities are offering a ‘mobility programme’ to Indian students under which they can opt to study at another university for a few semesters under the ‘student exchange’ programme, which the NMC has refused to recognise.
Indian students have started getting emails from Ukrainian universities to pay fee for the next semester. The students are being offered the option to return to the university for offline classes or continue studying theory online and return for practical training around February 2023 when the next semester begins. The other option being offered is a ‘mobility programme’ under which their classes will be arranged in some other university in Europe even as they will remain the students of the Ukrainian university.
Besides refusing to recognise the mobility offer to students, the NMC clarified that the option of students being accommodated in Indian medical colleges was also not there.
The option available with a student is to take transfer i.e. leave the Ukranian university and get admission in some other university. But that option, too, is available only to students whose course had started before November 18, 2021. The Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate (FMGL) Regulations that came into force in November 2021 state that students have to complete their entire training and internship from the same university without the option of transfer.
Hence, for the first-year students whose classes started after the cut-off date (November 18, 2021), even transfer is not an option. They have to either return to Ukraine or clear NEET for admission in an Indian college.
Many Indian students who had enrolled in Ukranian medical colleges and were contemplating moving to another European country to complete the course under the mobility scheme are now a worried lot.
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“A few days ago, the agency that got us admitted to the university and represents us there, informed us that they are planning to move us to some university in Georgia, under the mobility programme. But after this NMC notification, it is now clear that it is no more an option. The agency also told us that they are trying for a transfer, but it takes a lot of time,” said a third-year student of Vreglum College under Kharkiv National Medical University, requesting anonymity.
A first-year student of Bokovinian State Medical University said they had been aware of the FMGL regulations in the past but were hoping for some relief from the NMC. “I had taken a year’s break to prepare for the NEET and when I was unsuccessful in getting a seat in a government medical college, I went to Ukraine. Starting all over again would mean a lag of almost three years,” he said.
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