Thiruvananthapuram: The recent killing of an Indian student in Ukraine has raised several questions. Why do students from the Indian sub-continent decide to brave the severe weather conditions in places like Ukraine to pursue their professional studies? Are they not getting enough opportunities in India for professional studies? etc.
The father of Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, who got killed in Ukraine, had blasted out against the existing system of professional education in India, saying that his son did not go to Ukraine because he was poor in studies, but even after scoring 97 percent mark for his pre-university exams, his son could not secure a medical seat in Karnataka. If he had to choose a private medical college then he had to shell out several crores towards donations and fees.
Things are not different in Kerala, where stricter government regulations are in place for admissions and fee structures in private medical colleges. Anagha, a resident of Mandapathinkadavu, Tiruvananthapuram, who had secured high marks in both Plus Two exams and in NEET, is a recent returnee from Ukraine.
Anagha told ETV Bharat that it was not the merit but the high cost of education in the country that forced her to join courses in Ukraine. Anagha is a 4th-year medical student at the Buckovinian State Medical University in Ukraine.
"Even students who score good marks in NEET are not getting medical admission in government medical colleges in India", Anagha says. She further notes that one out of every five students in Ukraine is an Indian, and that out of the total 18,000 Indian students, 3493 are from Kerala.
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In 2021, more than five lakh students wrote the NEET examination. However, due to only 88,120 government medical seats in the country, which sees a significant slump after the reserved seats are taken into consideration, candidates and parents are often faced with the choice of either enrollment in a private institution, or studying abroad.
For promising students from normal economic backgrounds, medical education becomes a far-fetched dream as they have to shell out on average Rs. 40 lakhs to Rs. 1 crore for the five-year course.
In Kerala, the annual tuition fee for a private medical college is Rs. 6.94 lakhs. When special fee and hostel fee are added up this amount goes up to Rs. 8.5 lakhs. If it is under the NRI quota this amount goes up to Rs. 20 lakhs per year.
Compared to this, if the students are selecting a foreign university in countries like Ukraine the five-year spending is only between Rs.15 to 20 lakhs. In Ukraine, the fee for medical education is between Rs. 3 to 3.75 lakhs per year. If they find accommodation outside the campus, they could bring down the expenses much lower, Anagha says.
These private medical colleges in Ukraine do not insist on entrance examinations for students and are having recognition from the World Health Organisation, European Council of Medicine, and General Medical Council of the UK. The medium of instruction is in English, which is an added attraction for students from India, Anagha adds. In addition, these medical colleges also provide special courses to help the students learn foreign languages.
Also read: 130 buses to evacuate Indian students from Kharkiv and Sumy in Ukraine: Russian Army
Keeping the cost aside, FMGE is also a stumbling block for those who complete study in foreign countries and want to start practicing in India.
As per the Government of India rules, medical students who complete their studies in a foreign university have to pass the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination if they want to practice in India. But the number of students who pass this exam is very limited. In the FMGE exam held last December, 23,349 students wrote the examination but only 5665 students managed to pass. As per the data available, around 4,000 medical students who pass out from medical colleges in Ukraine write FMGE exams every year but on average, only 400 students manage to succeed.
Angha says she had secured good ranks in NEET but did not get a chance to study in the government medical colleges. "I did not have the financial back up to study in a private medical college in the country and was forced to select a medical college in Ukraine. We suffer a lot there due to extreme weather. But we are overcoming all these difficulties only with our passion to study," she says.
The student is also deeply hurt by the ridicule they face on social media following the Ukraine debacle. She says the students who go to these places to study are not dumb students but bright ones who have no financial capacity to study in India.
"We do not know about the future of our course due to the war. We have gone through a lot of hardships and are confident that this bad time will also pass, and we could continue our studies," she asserts.
