NEW DELHI: The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led many Indian students to return back to their country from Ukraine after experiencing distress in the war-torn country.
More than thousands of students from India had earlier moved to Ukraine to pursue medical education which is available in the European country at a low cost with easy seat availability than India.
However, due to the Russian military attacks in Ukraine, many of the students are safely brought back to India by the Indian government and some are still in evacuation flights on their way to the country.
Now the question arises about how these Ukraine-return students will complete their medical courses which they have left in between in the Ukrainian medical institutions.
According to sources, the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the Union Health Ministry are giving emphasis on the matter and trying to find solutions for the Ukraine-return medical students.
Sources informed that Health Ministry and NMC are exploring possibilities of relaxing provisions under NMC Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations, 2021.
The concerned authorities are also looking for alternative ways to help these medical students complete their courses.
The officials from the Health Ministry, NITI Aayog, Ministry of External Affairs and NMC will be soon holding discussions to review the matter on humanitarian grounds. Throughout the meeting between the officials, they will try to look at the issue sympathetically.
As per the existing provisions of NMC Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations, 2021, the complete course internship and training need to be done outside India in the same foreign medical college during the time of the study.
The provisions further added that any part of the medical internship and training cannot be done in India or in any other foreign country. It must be completed in the institution from where the student got the primary medical qualification.
Currently, there are no rules and regulations under NMC Regulations for the accommodation of medical students pursuing medicine from foreign countries and had to return back to India in between their academic years.
But official sources inform that NMC assures to review the matter of students returning to the country midway because of the prevailing situation of the Russian-Ukraine war.
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