Medical students evacuated from Ukraine can sit for final exam in India

Ukrainian first deputy foreign minister Emine Dzhaparova said 2,000 Indian students have returned to Ukraine, and most of them are at medical universities in the western part of the country

Updated on: Apr 12, 2023, 21:03:17 IST

By Rezaul H Laskar

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NEW DELHI: Ukraine has informed the Indian side that thousands of medical students who were evacuated because of the Russian invasion last year will now be able to take their final or qualification examination in India.

Ukrainian first deputy foreign minister Emine Dzhaparova who ended her visit to India on Wednesday, conveyed Ukraine’s request for more humanitarian aid (Twitter/EmineDzheppar)

The future of Indian students, whose studies in Ukraine were curtailed because of the war, figured in talks between visiting Ukrainian first deputy foreign minister Emine Dzhaparova and secretary (West) Sanjay Verma of the external affairs ministry.

“On the issue of Indian medical students, [Dzhaparova] mentioned that Ukraine will allow foreign medical students to take the Unified State Qualification Exam in their country of domicile,” said a statement issued by the external affairs ministry on Wednesday.

Dzhaparova told HT in an interview that approximately 14,000 Indian students will benefit from an academic mobility initiative put in place by Ukraine. These students can join online classes and have the option to appear for the qualification or final examination in India without going back to Ukraine because of security concerns, she said.

About 2,000 Indian students have returned to Ukraine, and most of them are at medical universities in the western part of the country, she said.

“I think we will have more students after the resolution of the war but we really did our best to evacuate the students from Ukraine in a secure way,” she said, referring to the return of more than 20,000 Indian students last year.

Dzhaparova, who ended her visit to India on Wednesday, conveyed Ukraine’s request for more humanitarian aid and raised the possibility of Indian companies participating in her country’s reconstruction during her talks with Indian interlocutors.

At her meeting with Verma on Monday, Dzhaparova proposed that the rebuilding of infrastructure in Ukraine “could be an opportunity for Indian companies”, the external affairs ministry’s statement said. Verma said India has provided medicines and medical equipment and will provide school buses to Ukraine.

Dzhaparova also conveyed Ukraine’s request for additional humanitarian supplies, including medicines and medical equipment, during her meeting with the minister of state for external affairs Meenakshi Lekhi on Tuesday.

The two sides agreed to hold the next round of foreign office consultations in Kyiv and the next inter-governmental commission in India on mutually convenient dates.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rezaul H Laskar
Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More

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