NEW DELHI: In a departure from norms, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has allowed students who returned to the country after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict to take a transfer to medical colleges in other countries.
While Indian students studying medicine in a foreign country could not move to other states mid-course, considering the special circumstances prevailing in Ukraine, the NMC in a recent notification conveyed its “no-objection for academic mobility programme in respect of Indian medical students who are studying in Ukraine, provided that other criteria of screening test regulations, 2002 are fulfilled”.
The rule earlier stated that “the entire course, training, and internship or clerkship shall be done in the same foreign medical institution throughout the course of study and no part of training/internship shall be done from another institute”.
Even as universities in Ukraine have begun operating, the prevailing geopolitical conditions are preventing students from attending them.
A bulk of those students who returned from Ukraine demanded that as a temporary solution they be given seats in Indian private medical institutions, but there was no response from either the NMC or the Union health ministry.
According to the NMC Act, students studying in foreign medical colleges are required to complete their education and obtain a degree from a single university only.
The public notice issued by NMC on Tuesday said the mobility program offered by Ukraine has been considered in the Commission in consultation with the Ministry of External Affairs, wherein it was intimated that the academic mobility program is a temporary relocation to other universities in different countries globally.
However, the degree will be awarded by the parent Ukrainian university, the official notice from NMC read.
"The Commission hereby conveys its no-objection for academic mobility programme in respect of Indian medical students who are studying in Ukraine provided that other criteria of Screening Test Regulations 2002 are fulfilled," the public notice said.
(With PTI Inputs)