NEW DELHI: More than 25,000 Indian students are studying across universities in Russia. The most popular courses are medicine and engineering amongst a host of others.
"There are more than 25,000 Indian students in Russia and the number is continuously increasing. In 2023 we issued more than 8,000 new visas for Indian students. We would hope that we would be able to sign an agreement with India wherein our degrees would be recognized in either country to make it suitable for professionals like doctors to begin practice without doing an additional course,’’ said Russian Ambassador to India, Denis Alipov on Thursday.
It may be recalled that before the USSR broke up into different nations, their degrees were recognized in India and many Indian students preferred to go to the USSR to study medicine.
Meanwhile, the Russian government recently hosted a World Youth Festival in Sochi, Russia, which had participants from over 100 countries and included a 360-member delegation from India. The last WYF was held in 2017.
"The Indian flag was amongst the most recognized flags at the event and Indian delegates were welcomed by local Russians with anecdotes of old films and songs,’’ said Ambassador Alipov.
Russian Federation President, Vladimir Putin, while interacting with some members of the delegation had said that "India and Russia were all-weather friends.’’
The last high-level visit from India to Russia was of External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar in December last year where he also met President Putin and there was talk of the resumption of India Russian Summit this year, during which Prime Minister, Narendra Modi could visit Moscow.
Paraphrased: We are optimistic about reaching an agreement with India that would ensure mutual recognition of our degrees, allowing professionals like doctors to start practicing without the need for further courses.