Ukraine Russia Conflict: Know Why Thousands Of Indian Students Go To Ukraine To Study Medicine

Ukraine News: More than 14,000 students of Indian origin are stranded in Ukraine. About 80% of these students go there for medical studies.

Students coming back to India after being evacuated from crisis-hit Ukraine.

Thousands of Indian-origin students are stranded in Ukraine currently as the crisis deepens in the east European country. Around 80 percent of these students are studying medicine there. It raises questions that why so many Indian students go to Ukraine to study medicine.

ABP News spoke to medical experts and families of these stranded students from Chhatisgarh who reveal the reasons for going there to study.

Medical Colleges In Chhatisgarh

There are nearly 14,000 Indian students who are stuck in Ukraine amid escalating Russian aggression. Of these, 70 are from Chhatisgarh, and most of them had gone there to study MBBS. 

There are nine medical colleges in Chhatisgarh, from which admissions are open in seven of them. These medical colleges are Raipur, Bilaspur, Raigarh, Rajnandgaon, Jagdalpur, Surguja, and Kanker. Thousands of students appear in the entrance exam every year to get into these colleges.

MBBS Seats In These Colleges

The thousands of students that apply in these colleges compete for 725 seats in the seven medical colleges in the state. In such a situation, many parents get their children enrolled in private medical colleges by giving donations. There are currently three private medical colleges in the state.

However, the middle-class and lower-middle-class families who cannot afford such donations, fall prey to an agency that works for Ukrainian medical colleges along with other countries.

Indian Education Standards

Experts say that the standard of medical education in India is much better. Medical students in India have to pass an exam to be considered a practitioner even if they have studied medicine from Ukraine. If the student fails to qualify, then they are not provided a license to practice.

Government College Fee

Jagdish Prasad Singh, administrative officer (AO) of the Government Medical College in Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh, says, “The government medical college of the state is charged a fee of four and a half years. In which 40 thousand rupees are charged every year as a government fee for the first four years. While the fee for the last six months is 20 thousand rupees. Apart from this, around 1200 rupees per student are charged as an exam fee at the time of examinations. Apart from this, 10 thousand rupees are charged in the first year as a non-government fee. After that, nine thousand 500 rupees are charged every year which includes hostel fees.”

In such a situation, if a student does not want to stay in the hostel, then Rs 3500 is taken as the hostel fee is reduced. That is if the government colleges of Chhattisgarh are considered to have a hefty expenditure for studying MBBS. So in four and a half years as government fee, it costs 50 thousand rupees in addition to the government fee of Rs 1,80,000, besides the exam fee and the non-government fee.  

Private Colleges Fee

Among the three private medical colleges in Chhattisgarh, medical college management operating in Mowa and the website of the college has some information. The fee for each year of MBBS in this private college is more than Rs 11,25,000. This includes Rs 6,45,000 tuition fees and Rs 2 lakh fees for hostels and messes and many other fees. 

Apart from this, there are two other medical colleges. Their fees are similar to this structure. In this way, the total cost of medical studies in private colleges of Chhattisgarh becomes around Rs 51 lakh. Besides, the private college management admits students to MBBS by charging their own fixed fees in some seats of the management.

Medical College Fee In Ukraine

Upendra Gupta, the father of Ambikapur resident Shubham Gupta, who is studying MBBS second year in Ukraine, said that Ukraine's education is good and it costs less money to study medicine there. It seems to be 60 to 70 percent lower in Ukraine than the fees here. Be it MBBS or Engineering in Ukraine, the studies of both the subjects are good at low cost. To study in the medical colleges of Ukraine, one has to clear the NEET exam held every year in India. After this, permission from the Government of Ukraine is easily obtained.