Maharashtra government will ask the Centre to reach out to Russia and other Eastern European countries close to Ukraine with a request to accommodate Indian medical students in their universities to enable the war-affected students to complete their course.
The decision in the regard was taken at a meeting held by Maharashtra Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh with Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) vice chancellor Dr Madhuri Kanitkar and other stakeholders on Wednesday.
“We are working on a policy to create a remedy plan for such students that also includes assessing the possibility to accommodate them at universities here. Experts from MUHS have been asked to widen their scope to study all possible options and submit a report within a month… We have already initiated talks with the National Medical Council and we will approach the Central government in the coming days. MUHS, too, will establish contact with Ukrainian and (other) East European Medical Universities,” Deshmukh said.
As many as 250 medical students have responded to the circular issued by MUHS last week asking details of students who have returned from Ukraine.
“The state government will reach out to all war-affected students through the local administration,” Deshmukh told The Indian Express.
Representatives from Russia also attended the meeting held at Vidhan Bhavan.
Meanwhile, the ministry is planning to provide a stopgap help to the affected students in Maharashtra in the form of extending theory lessons online and allowing library access in medical colleges across state.
While this is expected to be of help to students enrolled in third year and above in medical colleges in Ukraine, those from first or second year will be encouraged to appear for the National Entrance and Eligibility Test (NEET), which determines medical admissions in India.
Elaborating on this, Dr Kanitkar, said, “Curriculum of the first two years in Ukraine does not include medical knowledge. So, they are not at par with the first-year syllabus in India. Such students can appear for NEET and restart their studies.”
On the measures initiated for older students, she said, “This would be kind of ‘foster-medical-education’, until there is clarity. It will provide some relief to the students and their parents.”
Kanitkar said the MUHS is trying to connect with universities in Ukraine to understand their syllabus and their plan with regard to completing the students’ training.
“While a couple of universities there have been damaged, we have not been able to connect with others yet. We have appointed qualified officers from MUHS to email each and every university in Ukraine that is showing in our database collected from Ukraine-returned students. A committee of experts is also going to be formed to study the financial implications (of the crisis),” added Dr Kanitkar.
The state government and the MUHS have also decided to begin the process of data collection at local levels with the help of local administration. It is estimated that out of around 18,000 Indian students enrolled in medical education in 33 universities in Ukraine, around 2,000 are from Maharashtra.