EJ Explains: Why do so many Indians go to Ukraine to study medicine?

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has put focus on Indian students in the country.

Many are asking why do so many Indian students go to Ukraine and many other east European countries for medical studies.

The answer lies in pure economics and very limited number of medical seats available in the country.

The numbers explain themselves.

In India there are about 83,000 MBBS seats up for grabs every year.

Last year around 16 lakh students appeared for NEET-UG exam for admission to MBBS course.

Of 83,000 seats, only half are in government medical colleges, rest are private colleges.

While the fees for govt colleges is nominal and affordable, a 4.5-year MBBS course in a private college can cost anything between 50 lakh to over a crore.

Compare this to fees in Ukraine, where a student can complete a 6-year medical course in under 20 lakhs.

This has made East European countries such as Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania a popular destination for Indian students.

But medical graduates from foreign countries need to clear a Foreign Medical Graduates Exam to be able to practice in India.

Although, the number of medical graduates taking the test increased from 12,116 in 2015 to 35,774 in 2020, data shows that most fail.

According to an Indian Express report, In 2020, 12,680 graduates from Chinese universities appeared for the examination. This was followed by 4,313 graduates from Russia, 4,258 from Ukraine, 4,156 from Kyrgyzstan, 3,142 from the Philippines, and 2,311 from Kazakhstan.

How many cleared it?

Over the last five years, the average pass percentage of the FMGE examination has been nearly 16%, and the pass number for graduates from Ukraine has been just 17%.

As per the WHO norms, a country needs 1:1000 population-doctor ratio. In India currently, the ration is 1:1456. India needs 1.38 million doctors. According to the National Health Profile 2021, there are 1.2 million registered medical practitioners in the country.

Experts say that capping the fees at private colleges and increasing the number of MBBS seats can help realise a lot more students' medical dreams in the country and also perk up the availability of qualified doctors.