Medical students evacuated from Ukraine can sit for final exam in India
Ukraine has informed the Indian side that thousands of medical students who were evacuated because of the Russian invasion last year will now be able to take their final or qualification examination in India.
The future of Indian students, whose studies in Ukraine were curtailed because of the war, figured in talks between visiting Ukrainian first deputy foreign minister Emine Dzhaparova and secretary (West) Sanjay Verma of the external affairs ministry.
“On the issue of Indian medical students, [Dzhaparova] mentioned that Ukraine will allow foreign medical students to take the Unified State Qualification Exam in their country of domicile,” said a statement issued by the external affairs ministry on Wednesday.
Dzhaparova told HT in an interview that approximately 14,000 Indian students will benefit from an academic mobility initiative put in place by Ukraine. These students can join online classes and have the option to appear for the qualification or final examination in India without going back to Ukraine because of security concerns, she said.
About 2,000 Indian students have returned to Ukraine, and most of them are at medical universities in the western part of the country, she said.
“I think we will have more students after the resolution of the war but we really did our best to evacuate the students from Ukraine in a secure way,” she said, referring to the return of more than 20,000 Indian students last year.
Dzhaparova, who ended her visit to India on Wednesday, conveyed Ukraine’s request for more humanitarian aid and raised the possibility of Indian companies participating in her country’s reconstruction during her talks with Indian interlocutors.
At her meeting with Verma on Monday, Dzhaparova proposed that the rebuilding of infrastructure in Ukraine “could be an opportunity for Indian companies”, the external affairs ministry’s statement said. Verma said India has provided medicines and medical equipment and will provide school buses to Ukraine.
Dzhaparova also conveyed Ukraine’s request for additional humanitarian supplies, including medicines and medical equipment, during her meeting with the minister of state for external affairs Meenakshi Lekhi on Tuesday.
The two sides agreed to hold the next round of foreign office consultations in Kyiv and the next inter-governmental commission in India on mutually convenient dates.