COVID-19 impact | 1.5 years on, students enrolled in Chinese universities are stuck in India due to travel restrictions

“If it continues like this, a tissue paper will be more useful than my college degree,” Pranita, 21, said over the phone from her home in west India last month.

Pranita is one of roughly 21,000 Indian students studying medicine in China. She, like thousands of other students, has been unable to leave for college since January 2020 because of the pandemic and the restriction it has placed on international travel.

Also read: COVID-19 impact | Rush to get visa appointments is testing Indian students with admission letters to American universities

Indeed, Indian medical students aren't the only ones worried on this score. Students from Asia, Africa and Europe have launched a TakeUsBackToChina campaign on social media, as they wait for Chinese government to announce a plan or timeline to recall students to the country.

Meanwhile, malls, restaurants and streets have opened in certain parts of China, and vaccination is going at a breakneck speed — 86 out of 100 Chinese have been given doses against India’s 24%, according to this global tracker.

“I have been writing exams on clinical subjects. These are lab exams where we are supposed to diagnose a patient and then answer questions about his platelet count, how much aesthesia we should give, which tests we should prescribe, and so on," said Pranita, an MBBS student of a university in Nanjing, China.

"But we are writing these exams without seeing the patient, from our home, online. All we had was the patient’s history to figure things out. You know what? I am in the third year of college but I haven’t attended (to) a patient yet,” Pranita added.

Also read: Covid impact | Why the extra Rs1.2 lakh for 10 days of quarantine is tripping up Indian students headed to the UK for higher studies

How they got here

These students had flown back to India in early 2020. Many had come on the winter break, and some, to escape the novel coronavirus that was raging in China back then. Before they could return to a new semester in March, the world went into lockdown. Borders were sealed and students were advised to stay put and study remotely.

One and a half years have passed. Juniors haven’t got the freshers’ party, seniors haven’t done their practicals, super seniors can’t do medical internships until they return to China or pass the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE) to practice in India. For many, their laptops, subject books, stethoscope and emergency cash are gathering dust in dorms. A few are still paying for apartments they aren’t using.

Their patience is wearing thin and the cries of ‘Take Us Back To China’ have reached a crescendo on Twitter and Instagram. Letters written to embassies in China and India as well as the United Nations have either elicited no response or one of diplomacy. However, a tweet posted by a spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs (MEA), India, on June 5 has sparked hope. He has asked students stuck in India because of COVID-19 linked issues to contact its Overseas India Affairs-II division. In another development, the Centre has asked China to facilitate “two-way travel" as it has been doing.

Emails sent by Moneycontrol to MEA officials in India, and the Chinese ambassador to India seeking an update on the issue had not been answered at the time of publication. This story will be updated with their responses.

It’s obvious that online classes are no match to classroom lectures, laboratory work, peer learning and hospital training. But the dangers of international travel can’t be discounted either.

Theory versus practical

Students from Asia, Africa, Europe, among others, have been running the TakeUsBackToChina campaign on social media. They say they are cognizant of China’s concerns but all they are asking is to recall the ‘priority group students’ who require practical exposure, senior MBBS students and PhD scholars, that is.

Their concerns aren’t misplaced as can be evidenced from Anand Pariya’s situation. The 22-year-old had returned to Rajkot in Gujarat because his family was worried about the rising number of coronavirus cases in China, where he is studying at a university in Jilin. Now he is writing his final-year exams. Post which, he should start interning at a hospital, but the question is where and how.

“There’s not a single day when I don’t regret coming back. I had come with one bag for 15 days. Who knew I would be stuck here, wasting the most crucial year of my MBBS life and missing the practicals. But I have stopped cribbing because I have given up hopes of returning to China. Instead, I am preparing to write the FMGE later this year so I can intern and practice in India,” Pariya says.

Though Moneycontrol could not verify independently, it has learnt that some foreign students have taken a “college transfer” to other countries. The Indian counterparts are hesitating to take this step after the country’s apex medical regulator National Medical Commission (NMC) issued draft regulations this April. Pranita filled us in, “It says that an undergraduate student must complete the medical degree in the same college or the same country. If the draft becomes a bill, will it invalidate the degrees of those who switched colleges? We are confused.”

What worsens their regret is that desi students who didn’t leave China are back on the campus now. Rajnish Kumar Rai from Bihar’s Siwan is one of them. While it hasn’t been easy to stay alone in the apartment since his roomies left 18 months ago, he’s “still lucky”. “I can go to labs, talk to teachers and use the college library and WiFi to study all day. It’s not possible to get this environment at home between doing chores and keeping up with the time difference of 2.5 hours that India and China have,” the fourth-year student of Beihua University said ahead of the college's annual sports meet.

Back in India, in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara city, Raghav (last name withheld on request) has bought a subscription to a medical exam preparation app because he doesn’t find the online college lectures effective. “These lectures aren’t live but pre-recorded. So if we have a doubt, we can’t clear that right away. We have to wait for a few hours or days for the teachers to respond,” explained the third-year MBBS student. He added that his options for communication with teachers was further limited since India banned several Chinese apps.

Then there’s poor Internet connection, which has sent some on a hunt for a stable connection “outdoors” or “logged out” others in the middle of online exams.

The most worrying part, however, is the lack of hands-on training, which NMC has mandated once the colleges reopen in India. “Even in China, our university had assured it would cover the lab classes on our return. But of late, they have started demonstrating how to do stitches during surgeries and taking clinical exams. What am I supposed to make of this? That I am not going to China even this year?” asked Pranita.

The students' mental health is in the balance too. All day, they scan the news to find out when they can return. Add to that the anxiety that a third wave might ground their dreams this year too. The word on the grapevine is that they may go back by September, but officials haven’t confirmed. In any case, many have taken the WHO-approved Covishield.

Take us back or let go

Speaking on behalf of the TakeUsBackToChina group, although anonymously, an Indian representative said their demand isn’t unfair — the overseas students and their careers are being ignored. The student of Xi'an Jiaotong University lists out the ‘signs’:

1. Last September, China opened its borders for those holding valid residence permits for work, personal matters and reunion — not for students.
2. Despite its ambitious vaccination drive, China may not be able to reach herd immunity in time for theBeijing Winter Olympics in February 2022. So why is it going ahead with preparations, he asks?
3. China is silent on the return of foreign students to the country but has welcomed America for calling its students back for the fall term.
4. China allowed Korean students and some Americans to return to its Shanghai New York University. At that time, he argued, daily COVID-19 cases in the US were higher than in India and no vaccine was in sight.

“So, you see, China is capable of calling the international students back, and we are ready to fully co-operate with its quarantine requirement,” he summed up.

“Can the Indian government at least clarify if we can transfer our college term to another country?” he asked finally.