1,100 Indian students still in Ukraine, advised in Oct to leave: Meenakshi Lekhi
Minister of state for external affairs Meenakshi Lekhi said the Indian mission in Kyiv issued an advisory on October 25 asking all Indian citizens to “immediately leave Ukraine by available means”
NEW DELHI: Around 1,100 Indian students are currently in Ukraine and most Indian nationals pursuing medical education in the Eastern European country had returned home since the conflict began in February, minister of state for external affairs Meenakshi Lekhi said on Friday.
Lekhi said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha that the Indian mission in Kyiv issued an advisory on October 25 asking all Indian citizens to “immediately leave Ukraine by available means”. She also outlined steps taken by the National Medical Commission (NMC) to help students in Ukraine affected by the conflict.
“While most of the Indian students pursuing medical education in Ukraine have returned to India since the conflict began, around 1,100 Indian students are currently in Ukraine,” she said.
All Indian citizens in Ukraine have been advised by the mission in Kyiv to strictly follow safety and security guidelines issued by the local government and authorities. The embassy has also provided information about options available to Indians for crossing borders and remains in touch with nationals to provide help when required, she added.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 22,500 Indian nationals left the Eastern European country. Most of them were students enrolled in medical and engineering courses and they were taken from Ukraine to neighbouring countries, from where they were brought home on special flights.
Lekhi said the NMC, through a public notice dated July 28, 2022, devised a scheme whereby Indian students, who were in the last year of their undergraduate medical course but had to leave their foreign institute and had completed their studies with a certificate of completion of the course from their institute by June 2022, will be permitted to appear in the Foreign Medical Graduate (FMG) examination.
After qualifying in the FMG examination, the foreign medical graduates will be required to undergo “Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship” for two years to make up for the clinical training which could not be physically done by them during the undergraduate medicine course at the foreign institute, and also to familiarise themselves with the practice of medicine under Indian conditions.
NMC also issued public notices in September 2022 conveying its “no-objection” to the Academic Mobility Programme offered by Ukraine, or a temporary relocation for the period of conflict to some other universities, provided that other criteria of the Screening Test Regulations of 2002 are fulfilled.
Lekhi further clarified there are no restrictions on the permanent transfer of medical students to universities in third countries under the Screening Test Regulations.
Medical students were allowed to join online classes of theory subjects which have to be supplemented by offline practical and clinical training in the medical university or its affiliated hospital during their MBBS course.