Days after Union Health Ministry offered academic mobility programme (AMP) to the Ukraine-returned Indian medical students, who were forced to leave their courses midway owing to the Russia-Ukraine war, the students and parents have aired their concerns over the mobility option, citing it as a “temporary” and not a “permanent solution”.
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The National Medical Commission (NMC) had recently agreed to recognise the AMP offered by Ukraine to allow these students to relocate to universities in other countries and complete their studies. Last week, the Supreme Court asked the government to consider creating a web portal containing details of foreign universities where students can apply to complete their courses under the AMP.
As the matter is likely to come up before the apex court on September 23, students and their parents have raised questions surrounding the mobility program. “For successful execution of mobility programme, the parental universities of Ukraine should offer academic mobility programme but many of us have communicated with at least 18 universities to get the details of mobility but majority of the universities have denied it. Most of the universities are refusing to entertain our applications citing too many requests for the academic mobility in the first semester of 2022-23,” said Sameekha, the Ukraine returned Chandigarh-based undergraduate student.
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“The mobility programme proposed by NMC is temporary in nature, whereas we want a permanent solution. The new academic year has already commenced in September and there is possibility that children may lose their academic semester year if the matter continues to linger on. Besides, many of the countries suggested by the NMC are directly or indirectly involved in war. Also, if a student goes to a new country, he/she will have to learn their language, which is not an easy task,” said one of the aggrieved parents.
“We want the rules and regulations surrounding admission of these students appropriately amended or relaxed so that all these Ukraine-returned students can be accommodated in Indian medical colleges and they can complete their studies with peace of mind,” said the parent.
Advocate Vineet Bhagat, the counsel for the main petitioner, pointed out that only around five universities were offering mobility programmes. Since the academic year has already commenced on September 1, 2022, the mobility option has shut down for the these medical students, he pointed out.