New Delhi

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has asked technical institutions across the country to consider admitting students who have to leave their studies in the middle due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

There were about 20,000 Indian students pursuing MBBS and engineering in Ukraine who had to return back due to the war. AICTE has written a letter to technical educational institutions while keeping in mind the future of these students. In the letter, the council has said, "Around 20,000 Indian students have returned to the country from war-torn Ukraine, where they were studying medicine and engineering at various universities in Ukraine. These students who returned from Ukraine are in deep despair."

Indian students from Ukraine have left the course midway and returned home under compulsion. For now, their future seems to be hanging in the balance. Students aspiring to do MBBS prefer to go to Ukraine because the cost of studies there is less and on the other hand the competition for admission in medical colleges in India is very high.

According to the rules issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC) in 2021 for those pursuing medical graduates (FMGs) abroad, there is no provision for transfer from a foreign university to an Indian university in the middle of an MBBS programme as both the admission guidelines and the selection criteria are different.

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The issue was also raised in the Parliament. AICTE has urged various institutions to consider the candidature of students returned from Ukraine for the vacant seats available in the respective years so that the students can continue their studies.