A year after the outbreak of the Ukraine war, many students who were pursuing higher education in that country have made alternative arrangements to complete their studies.
This includes moving to another country or shifting track and changing the course altogether and starting afresh in India. Most of the students from India were pursuing their medical course in Ukraine.
While the initial days following their evacuation were one of euphoria and a sense of relief over escaping the crisis and the horrors of the unfolding war, there were concerns and uncertainty about their education and future.
New country, more loans
Having completed the third year of his MBBS at Kharkiv National Medical University, Billava Likhith Koragappa of Kushalnagar could not abandon the course midway. Though he undertook online classes being conducted by the institute, it was a temporary measure.
‘’He sought a transfer to Georgia in December and the seventh semester classes commenced in January,’’ said his brother Karthik. Despite the nine-month disruption, he did not lose sight of his goal and persisted with online studies, said Mr. Karthik.
He said many of Likhith’s classmates and juniors had also made similar arrangements. But these alternatives have come at a steep cost, which has forced many parents to either seek extension of the loan repayment period or borrow more to meet the immediate requirements.
Chandan Gowda, also of Kushalnagar, was in the third year of MBBS at Kharkiv National Medical University in Ukraine when the war broke out. ‘’He has got a transfer to a medical institute in Georgia and will pursue offline classes from March,’’ said his father K.M. Manjunath.
A fresh start
Not to be dismayed by the sudden turn of events last year, Priyanka of Mysuru opted to change her track and shifted her course altogether.
Priyanka had completed her second year MBBS at Bukovinian State Medical University in Chernivtsi, Western Ukraine when the war broke out. She took off just a few hours before the airport in Kiev was shut down for all commercial traffic.
‘’We were not keen to send her abroad again after all the crisis and trauma we underwent though she secured fresh admission in a medical college in Malayasia,” said Priyanka’s father Gurumallesh. ‘’She is now doing a degree in Product Designing in Bengaluru and is happy about it,” he added.
Mr. Manjunath was critical of the Indian government for not taking any measures to help students pursue and complete their studies. ‘’This was an extraordinary situation and not the fault of the students. The government should have conceived some measures to enable displaced students from pursuing their course instead of leaving them in the lurch,” he added.
