Odisha medical students back from Ukraine seek Edu Minister's help for admissions to Indian colleges

Uncertainty looms large over the future of Odisha medical students who returned from war-torn Ukraine last month. Hence, together, they have urged Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Education, Government of India to accommodate them in Indian medical colleges on humanitarian grounds.

Around 100 students met the Union Minister while he was visiting capital city Bhubaneswar on April 16, Saturday and submitted a memorandum to him seeking admission to medical colleges in the country. Sharing that their academics has been affected due to the ongoing war, the students said uncertainty looms over the completion of their education. After their return to India, Poland and Hungary governments had allowed the students to continue their medical education in their countries till things normalise in Ukraine.

In the memorandum, the students informed that medical fees and the cost of living in countries like Poland, Romania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic are more than double of Ukraine. "The quality of medical education in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan is not good. In the European countries, we will again have to learn the local language and affording the medical fees is next to impossible now having already spent a lot of money in Ukraine," they said in the memorandum.

From over 22,000 medical students who India brought back from Ukraine after the Russian invasion on February 24, around 500 are from Odisha studying in various medical colleges including those in Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Sumy.

Earlier, Kandhamal MP Dr Achyuta Samanta had urged the Centre to formulate a special strategy for the Ukraine returnee students. There are 605 medical colleges in India, of which 325 are in the private sector. He urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, besides Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, to come up with a concrete policy for assigning students to different medical colleges in India.

So far, students who have graduated from medical colleges in Ukraine are allowed by the National Medical Commission to complete their internship in India provided they clear the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination.