Russia-Ukraine war: How Indian med students’ dreams came crashing

In November 2021, Alagulakshmi Sivakumar was both excited and anxious when she boarded a flight from India to Ukraine as online classes forced by a global pandemic finally gave way to on-campus studies. At the Bogomolets National Medical University in Kyiv, Alagulakshmi spent time catching up with fellow students, many of whom were Indians, in the canteen, university corridors and classes in between studies. Amid the mounting pressure of completing the syllabus, which for medical students is more taxing than others, Alagulakshmi and her new friends also made plans to explore Kyiv beyond the walls of the university campus and, if possible, beyond Kyiv.

Less than four months later, Alagulakshmi, along with about 600 other Indian students, sits crouched on the mud floor of the basement in her university hostel shaking and shivering. Amid sounds of shelling after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, fear has muddled their heads so much that the students can’t figure out if the shivering is caused by the freezing cold or sheer fear. As anxiety grips them every time a bomb explodes, they long to return home.

The thoughts of an uncertain future in the war-torn country do not leave them at any point.

When the Indian government advised its nationals, especially students, to leave Ukraine temporarily due to uncertainties on February 15, many back home were caught by surprise. “Who goes to Ukraine to study?” they wondered.

According to the Ukraine Ministry of Education and Science, around 18,095 Indian students were studying in Ukraine in the year 2020. In fact 24 per cent of Ukraine’s overseas students were from India. Ukraine ranks fourth in Europe for having the largest number of graduate and post-graduate specialisations in the field of medicine.

The MBBS course fees charged by medical institutions in Ukraine can range between ₹30 lakh and Rs 35 lakh compared to around Rs 1 crore (including donations) charged in India.

Unlike in India, students aspiring to study medicine don’t need to clear entrance examinations to get admissions. Moreover, the medium of instruction is English and so the students do not necessarily have to learn a foreign language.

For Alagulakshmi, the flight to Ukraine was fuelled by the desire to be a doctor. The dream, in fact, was planted in her mind by her favourite teacher when she was in Class 10 in 2015. “One day, amid regular classes, the teacher told us that she always wanted to become a doctor. But she ended up taking BSc (Zoology) because she missed the medical seat by just 0.5 marks. It was not that she was unhappy being a teacher, but I could feel her pain of missing out on medical school. That motivated me to take the Biology group in Class 12,” she reminisces.

In no time, Alagulakshmi came to love the subject. In 2017, she cleared intermediate with 93 per cent from a government school in Tamil Nadu. With rising hopes, she appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) the same year.

“In the first year, I scored only 202 marks. My parents and I decided that I would take a year’s break to study for the examination before appearing for it again in 2018. This time, I got a scholarship to attend coaching classes and I studied hard. In the second attempt, I scored 316. I wanted to try one more time and my parents agreed. The third time, I scored 420 marks and got a seat in a private college under government quota. But we could not afford it,” said the third-year medical student.

The estimated expenditure, including the course and hostel fees, were upwards of Rs 7 lakh per year.

Explaining why she chose to pursue studies in Ukraine, Alagulakshmi said one of her friends who had joined Bogomolets National Medical University a year ago, recommended the university because it not only provided good medical education, but was also affordable.

“It is a national university. My total expense in Ukraine is around Rs 5 lakh per year, which includes food and accommodation. It is only because I got a 50 per cent scholarship for my course fee, I could afford it without getting any loans. My father is a security guard and mother is a hotel staff and they have spent all their life’s savings on my education,” she explained. Both Class 12 marks and NEET scores are considered for admission to Ukraine universities.

A year after she took up the course, the Tamil Nadu government introduced 7.5 per cent horizontal reservation for government school students in medical colleges. “If only the government had introduced the horizontal reservation a year earlier, I would have stayed closer to my parents and studied peacefully in Tamil Nadu itself. I wouldn’t have been stranded in a war-torn country fearing for my life,” she said.

War doesn’t kill only through bombs and bullets. It claims victims even as resources start running out.

Alagulakshmi and her fellow students have been eating just one proper meal a day due to ration shortage. They get to sleep only a few hours a day. Loud explosions and anxieties over an uncertain future keep them awake.

Back in India, sleep is eluding even the parents of students stranded in Ukraine.

“My parents are very worried and the only thought running through my mind is to get home safely,” she says. “But I am also worried about my future. My parents have already started saying that they would not send me back to Ukraine. But I want to come back and complete my course once the situation normalises. I have invested five years of my life for this and I don’t want to let that go in vain,” she explains.

Shared from the basement of the hostel of Kharkiv National Medical University in Kharkiv, G Sridharan’s story is no different. With both the Russian and Ukrainian forces increasing their troop build-up around the university, Sridharan and 200 other students have been confined to the basement for almost three days straight. Rubbing shoulders with others in the dark and cramped room, struggling even to stretch his legs, Sridharan, said he thinks about his future which has become uncertain due to the war.

“Ever since I was in Class 9, I wanted to become a doctor. It is not like I was inspired by someone but because I loved the subject, especially human anatomy. So, as soon as I completed Class 12 examination in 2018, I immediately joined a reputed coaching centre by spending close to Rs 1 lakh. In my first attempt, I scored 250 marks. As I belong to the general category, I only managed to get a dental course in management quota,” said Sridharan.

Explaining that he wanted to pursue MBBS and did not want to waste time in repeating the entrance examination, Sridharan said he decided to pursue the degree in a foreign country. “I checked out various options outside India in countries including Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. But I zeroed down on the university in Ukraine because it was affordable and the quality of the education was good. If I were doing MBBS from a private college in India, it would have cost me Rs 1 crore just for studies. But here it would be just one-third of that even if I include my accommodation and food expenses,” said the fourth-year medical student.

Of late, there has been another advantage. Students like Sridharan and Alagulakshmi no longer feel studying abroad puts them at a disadvantage if they want to come back to their home country to practice medicine since all medical graduates – whether they have studied in India or abroad – will now have to clear the National Exit Test (NExT) to practice medicine and pursue higher studies in India.

Until recently, the exam (earlier known as Foreign Medical Graduate Exam, or FMGE) was mandatory only for medical graduates who had completed their course from abroad and wanted to practice in India. This was something that deterred many from going to universities in Ukraine, Uzbekistan, China etc., to study medicine since the FMGE is arguably “tough” to clear. So much so that, many claim, it required them to practically do their MBBS all over again at coaching centres in India to clear FMGE.

“I don’t regret coming to Ukraine for studies because I have a lot of good memories from here. My only concern is my education. Because we don’t know when the war will end and when the universities will reopen. In fact, I had stayed back in Ukraine only because the university refused to conduct online classes and I would be forced to repeat the semester if I missed many classes. I did not want to lose time. But now, I don’t know when my classes will resume,” added Sridharan.

The condition of the students belie the notion that everyone studying abroad is ‘super rich’.

“Everyone thinks we are studying in a foreign country because we are super rich but that is not the case,” said Aishwarya Selvaraj, a fourth-year student from Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University in Mykolaiv as she gets ready to leave the city. She and 400 other students have spent close to three days in the basement of the university’s hostel as the war in the region was intense.

“It is difficult to stay miles away from parents and survive in a foreign land which has a completely different culture, landscape, climate and language. It is only after you adjust to the living conditions of the country, you will be able to concentrate on studies properly,” she explained.

And now that she has adjusted well in Ukraine, Aishwarya feels the war is here to ruin her hopes. She and her friends are running out of ration and water and are low on money. “I have come here only because I could not get a seat under the government quota in medical colleges back in India and we could not afford to pay the hefty fees that the private colleges charge,” she said.

Her father Selvaraj, who is a temple priest, said, “Aishwarya took her NEET examination in 2018. It was around the time when the Tamil Nadu government had been making promises to scrap NEET and there was a lot of confusion among the students. We did not want to take any risk preparing for NEET for another year because it would have been a waste of time if the government decided to scrap it. That’s why we decided to send her to Ukraine.”

Now, while Aishwarya spends every day panicking, her parents too are a bundle of nerves. “We are worried both about her safety and her future because she has spent four years studying MBBS. Now that we don’t know when normalcy would return in Ukraine or when colleges would start functioning, her future is uncertain. Also, we are scared to send her back once she comes home safely. After all, her safety is more important,” he explained, while Aishwarya said returning home is her first priority and everything else is secondary.

Worried about his daughter’s future, Selvaraj is visiting multiple government offices requesting the authorities to provide an opportunity to students returning from Ukraine before completing their studies to study in government colleges in Tamil Nadu and to take the request to Chief Minister MK Stalin.

Making a similar demand, Deva, a student from Ternopil National Medical University, said most students had opted to study in foreign countries only because they could not bag a medical seat in India. He had taken NEET twice. The first time, he scored 328 marks and in the second attempt, he scored 422 marks.

Claiming that education is equally good in Ukraine, Deva said, “We were only 14 students in a class and we got individual attention from the teachers. Our clinical skills have also been honed as the hospital classes started from the second year onwards. Peer-assisted learning, which is considered one of the most effective learning methods, was in practice and we were simultaneously involved in research.”

Waiting to be rescued safely to India, Deva recalled the good times he has had in the foreign country. Just like the sky over Ukraine, he said, his future too has suddenly plunged into darkness.