The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has registered its concerns regarding the Ukrainian returnee students. The AICTE appealed to the technical institutions of pan India to absorb or consider admitting students who left their studies without completing, what they were pursuing in a foreign country, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The statistics suggest there were about 20000 Indian students pursuing MBBS and engineering in Ukraine, who had to return back due to the war.

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A letter drafted by AICTE, to technical education institutions, with regard to students with an incomplete degree due to the Russian-Ukraine war, suggesting to keep the future of these returnee students in mind. In the letter, the council has said, “Around 20,000 Indian students have returned to the country from war-torn Ukraine, where they were studying medicine and engineering at various universities in Ukraine. These students who returned from Ukraine are in deep despair.”

It should be noted that given the very limited number of seats for professional courses in India, Ukraine and many other foreign countries had become popular educational destinations. The recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia has compelled the Indian students to leave their course midway.

According to the rules issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC) in 2021 for those pursuing medical graduates (FMGs) abroad, there is no provision for transfer from a foreign university to an Indian university in the middle of an MBBS programme as both the admission guidelines and the selection criteria are different. Apparently, without any intervention by educational entities, For now, their future seems to be hanging in the balance,

The issue has also been raised in Parliament in the latest session that sought to understand the migration of students into foreign nations.  AICTE has urged various institutions to consider the candidature of students who returned from Ukraine for the vacant seats available in the respective years so that the students can continue their studies.

(With inputs from IANS)