As hundreds of MBBS students enrolled in medical institutions in war-hit Ukraine make a desperate move back home, the immediate priority is safety. However, even after they arrive in India, the road ahead looks bumpy for them.
The rules don’t allow medical students from abroad to switch to Indian colleges or even to other institutions abroad midway through their courses.
There are a little over 18,000 Indian students in Ukraine and about 80-90 per cent of them are MBBS students enrolled in about 10 institutions across the eastern European nation, according to Ukraine government data and independent estimates.
The National Medical Commission, the regulator for medical education in India, mandates that foreign medical students must complete an MBBS course of at least 54 months and a year of internship at the same overseas institution.
The Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations of 2021 state that the entire course, training and internship shall be done outside India “in the same foreign medical institution throughout the course of study and no part of medical training and internship shall be done in India or any other country other than country from where the primary medical qualification is obtained.”
Clearing the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE), conducted by the National Board of Examination under the Union health ministry is a must for MBBS graduates from abroad to obtain a licence and practice medicine in the country.
Also, foreign medical graduates are required to complete an additional year of internship in India.
No relaxation on anvil
Dr Aruna Vanikar, who heads the undergraduate board at the NMC, told Moneycontrol that as of now, there are no plans to offer any relaxation to medical students who have returned from Ukraine.
Officials in the Union health ministry said the government’s priority, for now, is the safe evacuation of students from Ukraine and there are no internal discussions about their academic future.
For the students, who are required to begin hospital duties from the second year itself, even online classes may not be an option if the situation in Ukraine stabilises in the coming weeks.
Experts said there is no precedent of students pursuing MBBS abroad being absorbed in Indian colleges during their training.
Dr C V Birmanandhan, who was vice president of the Medical Council of India before it was replaced by the NMC, said if the crisis persists, it will be difficult for the students from Ukraine.
“To my knowledge, it has never happened that students who choose to pursue MBBS outside India are enrolled in Indian medical colleges later under any circumstances,” he said. “I also feel that there is no room for unethical considerations on sympathetic grounds as medicine is unlike any other technical course and here patients’ lives are impacted by the training of the doctors.”
One option, the ex-MCI vice president suggested in case MBBS students are in no position to return to Ukraine to complete their training, is that they appear for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test and begin their course afresh, if qualified.
“But I do not know if the medical education regulator and the government think of any alternative option,” Birmanandhan said. “However, I feel that sympathies aside, merit should be the only criterion guiding the future course for the regulators.
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