No provision to absorb Ukraine returned students in Indian medical colleges, Parliament told

New Delhi, December 13

The government reiterated in Parliament on Tuesday that there was no law in place whereby Ukraine-returned Indian students could be accommodated in domestic medical colleges.

Admitting that petitions had been received on the issue from students and MPs, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pawar said, “Foreign Medical Students/Graduates are either covered under Screening TestRegulations, 2002 or Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations, 2021.”

There are nosuch provisions in the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 & the National Medical CommissionAct, 2019 as well as the Regulations to accommodate or transfer medical students from anyforeign medical institutes to Indian medical colleges. No permission has been given by the National Medical Commission to transfer or accommodate any foreign medical students in any Indian medical institute/university.”

The minister, however, said in pursuance of the Supreme Court orders, NMC had devised a scheme underwhich Indian students who were in the last year of their undergraduate medicine course (due toCovid-19, Russia-Ukraine conflict, etc., had to leave their foreign medical institute) and havesubsequently completed their studies as also have been granted certificate of completion ofcourse/degree by the respective institute, on or before June 30, 2022, are permitted to appear inForeign Medical Graduate Examination.

“Thereafter, upon qualifying the FMG examination, suchforeign medical graduates are required to undergo Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship(CRMI) for a period of two years to make up for the clinical training which could not bephysically attended by them during the undergraduate medicine course in the foreign institute asalso to familiarise them with practice of medicine under Indian conditions. The foreign medicalgraduates get registration only after completing the CRMI for two years,” Pawar said.

The government informed Parliament that as information received from MEA, the Indian Embassy in Kyiv has communicatedwith all the Universities concerned in Ukraine for providing transcript and other documents in asmooth manner to the students. The details are available on the website of the Embassy to assiststudents to address any related issues,Pawar said.