Indian Students In Ukraine Crisis: What Makes Them Pursue MBBS Degree Abroad?

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis has stirred up fear, uncertainty and chaos amongst the residents of Ukraine. Caught amid the tense situation were over 18,000 Indian students out of which 90% were medical students. As the Indian Government races up to bring back the Indian students safely to their families, one can’t help but think aloud, why did these students choose Ukraine over India to pursue their MBBS studies? 

Delving Deeper

The ‘Demand and Supply’ Conundrum

India offered approximately 84,000 MBBS seats against 1.6 million registered students in the 2021 NEET examination. Succumbing to the stifling competition, many students opt to look for opportunities beyond the country to make their dream come true. Hence, each year, thousands of students choose to go to Ukraine, Philippines, China and Russia for their higher studies. Getting admissions there is a lot easier. But it is not just about availability of seats. There is another important factor.

The Cost Factor

The said countries provide less expensive alternatives to Indian students as compared to medical colleges in India. Let’s do some fact checking here:

The average fee for a government medical college in India is around 2 lakhs. But as the competition level is very high, many students fail to make it into these institutions. Their only resort is to go for a private medical college which charges somewhere between INR 50 lakhs to 1 Crore as fees. On the contrary, in Ukraine, the annual fee for MBBS courses is about INR 4-5 lakhs which is way lower than Indian medical colleges. This largely contributes to the influx of Indian students into Ukraine and other countries such as China, Russia, Nepal, Philippines, Kazakhstan etc. 

Is a Degree from China, Russia or Ukraine a sureshot career in India?

To be eligible to practice medicine in India, foreign trained students have to clear the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE). Clearing the FMGE test is mandatory for doctors who have earned their MBBS degree from a foreign country except those who have studied from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US. But here is the other side of the coin.

The pass percentage of this examination is quite low with only 10 to 20% of doctors trained in foreign countries passing the exam. This paves way for another question. What is the quality of education in these countries that offer cheaper higher studies in medicine for students?

An Unproductive Investment? 

As per 2019 data, between 2012-2018 almost 84 percent of foreign trained doctors failed to clear the mandatory FMGE test required to practice in India. Let's see the following table that shows data of 61,708 Indian students who graduated from foreign medical institutions between 2015 and 2018. These Indian students were tracked by the National Board of Examinations, which conducts the FMGE. 

Stating this data, the Union Health Ministry had accepted that a majority of foreign trained doctors find it difficult to pass the mandatory screening test. The Government even called out these institutions for poor performance of their students, and said that they ‘admit Indian students without proper basis of assessment and without taking into consideration the academic ability of students to deal with medical studies.’ This eventually results in a situation where students fail to qualify the screening test. Hence, despite holding MBBS degrees, many foreign trained doctors are ineligible to treat patients in India. 

India’s Need For More Doctors

India is reeling under shortage of doctors. The public healthcare system in India shows a grim picture with a ratio of 0.08 doctors for 1000 people. States such as Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh which have a large percentage of rural population, sadly have the highest shortfall of doctors. On the top of it, as discussed above, despite holding MBBS degrees, many foreign trained doctors are ineligible to treat patients in India. 

The solution to this problem lies in framing strategies that attack the root cause of this problem. Increasing the number of seats in government medical colleges, fee regulation in private colleges, addressing admission bottlenecks, heavy investment in health infrastructure will gradually lead to a better situation and may resist Indian students to venture out of the country for medical studies over the coming years. 

But for students coming back from Ukraine, the future may be challenging. “The stakes are highest for candidates in their third year and final year. There is no clarity on when the university will start and when we would be called back. We are leaving the university right now with no clarity of our future." said a third year student of Zaporizhzhia State Medical University who was on his way back to India from Ukraine.