MUHS offering guidance to Ukraine returned medicos, first-year students encouraged to re-appear in NEET
Mumbai: The first-year MBBS students who had to leave the war-torn Ukraine, are being encouraged by the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) for re-appearing in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate Examination (NEET-UG).
Such suggestions have been given by the University in the three-month long online guidance sessions offered by MUHS to the medical students who had to come back from Ukraine. Around 1,200 such students who are from Maharashtra had enlisted for the guidance sessions offered by MUHS.
Lt Gen Madhuri Kanitkar (retd), Vice Chancellor of MUHS informed Indian Express that the mid-year students have started online sessions with their respective universities in Ukraine and the final-year students will approach MUHS for Internship after they clear the foreign medical graduate examination to be held in December
After the commencement of the war between Ukraine and Russia, thousands of medical students who were pursuing their education in the Ukraine based Universities had to come back home. Although there has been continuous plea from those students for accommodating them in the Indian medical colleges, the National Medical Commission (NMC) clarified it to be not possible.
Also Read:Cannot admit medical undergrads from Ukraine in Indian medical colleges: Govt to SC
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that several organizations had requested the Government for accommodating the medicos in the Indian institutes as a one time measure. In this regard, petitions have been filed before the Supreme Court as well seeking relief for the Ukraine returned medicos.
Meanwhile, filing an affidavit before the Supreme Court, the Central Government also informed that Indian medical students who returned from Ukraine cannot be accommodated in Indian universities as there is no provision in the National Medical Commission Act allowing it.
In the affidavit, the health ministry said it had examined the issue elaborately in consultation with the National Medical Commission (NMC), the country's apex regulatory body for medical education.
It said while the NMC had so far "not allowed to transfer or accommodate any foreign medical student in any Indian medical institute/ university", the regulatory body had allowed medical graduates with incomplete internship, due to their leaving their colleges or universities abroad in view of the war or the Covid pandemic, to complete the remaining part of the internship in India.
"It is humbly submitted that in case these students with (a) Poor Merit are allowed admission in premier medical colleges in India by default, there may be several litigations from those desirous candidates who could not get seats in these colleges and have taken admission in either lesser known colleges or have been deprived of a seat in medical colleges. Further, in case of affordability, if these candidates are allocated Private Medical Colleges in India, they once again may not be able to afford the fees structure of the concerned institution", the affidavit stated.
As per the latest media report by Indian Express, in an attempt to address the problems faced by the Ukraine returned medicos, the State Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh along with the officials from MUHS had launched e-learning solutions for the medicos.
While commenting on this, MUHS VC Lt Kantikar referred to the fact that in Ukraine, the method of teaching the curriculum was different. "Hence, it was not possible to amalgamate the system here. So the expert faculty tied up with Elsevier, a noted medical publisher, to prepare digital content for the three-month online training," he said.
Speaking about this, the Professor and Head of Medical Education, MUHS, Dr. Chitra Ambhure referred to the multiple inquiries from the students and parents initially. "Students were encouraged to register with the online programme and a user email address was provided, she said. The three-month programme has been successful," mentioned Dr. Ambhure.
Around 1200 such Maharashtra based students had enlisted for the three-month long online session, where the first-year medicos who returned from Ukraine were encouraged for re-appearing in NEET.
"We have encouraged all first-year medical students, who may have missed just four to five months, to re- appear for UG NEET while mid-year students have started online sessions with their respective universities in Ukraine. The final-year students are now preparing for the foreign medical graduate examination to be held in December this year. We have informed them that once they have appeared for the examination, they can approach MUHS for an internship," added the MUHS VC.
It should be mentioned in this context that recently NMC informed about its No-Objection for academic mobility program in respect of Indian Medical Students who are studying in Ukraine.
The apex medical regulator agreed to recognise the programme offered by Ukraine to allow such students to complete their education as the degree will be awarded by the parent Ukrainian university only.
Recently issuing a clarification in this regard, NMC also informed the students about the list of countries where the "Academic Mobility Program" is applicable.
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