Ukraine-returned AP medical students stare at bleak future

Vijayawada: Medical students of Andhra Pradesh, who were stranded in Ukraine and returned to their native places from the war-ravaged country, are worried about their future and career.

Particularly, third and fourth year students are worried that their academic year will be wasted if the war continues for a long time between Ukraine-Russia. On an average, each student spends between Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh to pursue MBBS in Ukraine. Fourth year students have spent nearly Rs 20 lakh and need to attend one more year to complete the five-year course. For five years, the students spend Rs 25 lakh on average. Till now the students are hopeful of completing the 5-year MBBS course and later one year as house surgeon.

Compared to Andhra Pradesh and other South Indian States, medical education is less expensive in Ukraine. Moreover, the students get good accommodation and learning facilities in the universities and colleges in Ukraine. Consequently, several hundred students every year go to Ukraine to pursue MBBS. It was estimated that around 770 students from AP are in Ukraine.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has dashed their hopes of completing the course. Now, the future looks bleak for the hundreds of medical students due to ongoing war, which is intensifying day after day as Russia is not relenting attacks transforming the cities, towns, military infrastructure facilities.

A fourth year student, who returned from Ukraine, said that the Andhra Pradesh government can help them to pursue the remaining course by allocating seats in one of the medical colleges in the State. "We are extremely worried about our career and future as the Russia-Ukraine war seems to continue for a long time," he said. He said the Russia-Ukraine war had shattered their dreams of getting an MBBS degree. Stating that the Russian army was attacking the military installations and now started attacking the civilian targets also, he noted that since so far there is no news of attacking educational institutions, there is still hope that the medical universities may start online classes in near future if the war ends. Students can attend the theory classes staying home online but they can't attend the practical classes. The students can learn the subject better if they attend the practical classes.

A girl student, who returned from Ukraine, said they faced many hardships to return to India from the war-torn Ukraine. She said the students have travelled 22 hours by train standing near the coach toilet and finally reached the India-Poland border. Travelling in -4 degrees temperature was a very horrible experience, she added. She hoped that the Andhra Pradesh government could understand their difficulties and provide opportunities by allotting seats in the medical colleges in the State. The girl student said most of the Telugu students went to Ukraine to pursue MBBS because the expenses are low compared to the MBBS fee and expenses in Andhra Pradesh or any state in India.

For the first time, the Indian students have faced lot of racial discrimination in Ukraine. The students, who returned from Ukraine, said all Ukrainian people sat in the trains, but the Indian students had to stand in the trains that took around 20 hours in minus degree temperature and hostile weather conditions.

The student said she had travelled nearly 40 hours from Eastern Ukraine to reach home in Vijayawada passing from East Ukraine to West Ukraine and catching a flight from Poland to Mumbai and finally to Vijayawada.

Another student said he was worried about the future as the war seems to continue for a long time and there is no scope of peace. The media reports say that Ukraine is resisting strongly with the arms, ammunition and sophisticated technology it got from the Western countries. He said, 'We became the victims of war and hostilities between the Russians and Ukrainians and our future looks grim.' He said that the State government can help us if it takes initiative to provide seats in the medical colleges in the State to complete the remaining course.