Indian Students Who Went To Ukraine Had Poor NEET Score; Can’t Be Allowed To Study In Indian Colleges

The government told the Supreme Court that Indian students who were studying in Ukraine but had to return home due to the war cannot be accommodated in Indian universities.

There was no provision for it in the National Medical Commission Act.

Background

Thousands of Indian students studying MBBS in Ukraine had to abandon their studies and leave the war-torn country after Russia invaded in February.

The Indian government organised special flights to evacuate over 22,000 Indians from Ukraine

The government said that accommodations would hamper standards of medical education in India.

Insufficient merit, unaffordability

It explained that such students went to foreign countries due to two reasons — poor merit in NEET and affordability.

Hence, allowing poor merit students in premier medical colleges in India can lead to other litigation.

Another issue is that they won’t be able to afford the fee structure.

Protecting standards of medical education in India

The Centre also stated that it had taken proactive measures to help the returned students while balancing the need to maintain the requisite standard of medical education in the country.

Any further relaxation in this regard, including transfer of these returnee students to Medical colleges in India would not only go against the provisions of Indian Medical Council Act 1956 and the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, this would also seriously hamper the standards of medical education in the country.

Academic Mobility Program

Earlier this month, the National Medical Council (NMC) had given its “no-objection” to the academic mobility program being offered by the Ukrainian government for foreign medical students.

The Academic Mobility Program is a temporary relocation to other universities in different countries globally.

Ukrainian universities have partnered with some institutes in the rest of Europe where the students will continue to study as their exchange students.

However, they will remain students of the Ukrainian university and the degree will be awarded by the parent university.

Student exchange program

The NMC decision comes after the Ukrainian authorities recently asked Indian students to return to campuses and resume their classes.

They also have the option to enroll themselves in universities of another country under a “student exchange” programme. 

Earlier, a report in the Indian Express said the NMC had refused to recognise the ‘mobility program’ being offered by the Ukrainian government, leaving Indian medical students in a lurch.

The NMC had also clarified that there was no option of students being accommodated in Indian medical colleges.