As Indian students returned from Ukraine continue to attend online classes conducted by universities in the war-ravaged East European country. The offers to study in countries such as Russia and Hungary await them.
Russian universities, which have some 16,000 Indian students, reportedly made efforts to reach out to Indian students who returned from Ukraine, while Hungary's Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó in an interview said that the country is willing to admit the students into their medical institutions when they are ready.
“It would be great if universities from other countries accept us but our priority is to continue our studies in Ukraine. If things don’t get resolved in the next few months, I would prefer to move to other European countries,” said Keyur Karetiya, a fourth-year medical student from Dnipro State Medical Academy.
Another student, who pursues his MBBS from Kyiv’s Bogomolets National Medical University, Aryan Chaudhary, told the Free Press Journal that while such offers are desirable they will not be hassle-free. “We will have to go through another set of processes to take admission to these universities as they are situated in other countries. None of the universities in Hungary or Russia has approached us so far. Maybe we will be able to take a call after a few months,” said Aryan.
For others, before being admitted to universities of foreign countries, India needs to consider their pleas. “We haven’t heard from Indian medical colleges on conducting our practicals despite many universities in Ukraine approaching our country’s authorities to assist with the same,” said Vinay Lalwani, a second-year student at Dnipro Medical University.
As Ukraine and Russia continue fighting each other, many faculty members in Ukraine continue to teach the students. “Whenever an air raid siren or alarm goes off in Odessa, our professors end the lectures instantly as they have to run to the bunker. They have been braving the attacks to teach us,” said Firoz Ahmed, a student from Odessa National Medical University who further stated that many students from the Middle East are already continuing education in Ukraine’s neighbouring countries as they didn’t go back to their homes after the war.
‘Waiving loans would be a relief’
According to statistics supplied by 21 private sector banks, the government announced in parliament on Monday that up to 1,319 students who returned from Ukraine had taken out college loans, with an outstanding balance of Rs 121.61 crore as of December 31, 2021.
In response to the subject of student loan forgiveness, the government stated that the consequences of the ongoing conflict can only be analysed once the situation has stabilised.
“It would be great if we receive some relief on our loans,” said Pooja Bishnoi, a medical student from Bogomolets National Medical University. A similar sentiment was raised by another student named Jaineel Jani who said at least waive the interest on the loans would be ideal for students like him. Jaineel added that he had taken a loan of 7.5 lakhs.
“We haven’t considered recommending to students about studying in other countries”
Nicy Vinu, Director of Overseas Programmes at Santa Monica Study Abroad, who has been in touch with Indian students and universities in Ukraine said that other countries are willing to take the students in but as online classes are being conducted by Ukrainian universities, it’s not being considered for the time being. “Hopefully in the next six months we will get more clarity and if the war lingers only then we will be recommending students to explore other options,” said Ms Vinu.
