KOZHIKODE: It is a year to the day on Saturday (January 9) that Malappuram native Husna Pallikkunnan returned from China where she is pursuing medicine. Since then, she has been attending online classes.
However, worry over practicals, medical council registration, visa expiry and unconfirmed reports that only vaccinated foreign students will be allowed back into the Chinese mainland is making her lose sleep. Husna is among the nearly 2,000 Malayalis worried about completing their course in China.
“There is no word from authorities regarding the modalities for our return. Foreign businessmen are visiting China but not students. I am in the fourth year and the clinical part has begun. All the practical classes are pending. Also, my visa has expired,” said Husna, who is studying in Yangzhou University.
According to Hanan Hamza, a third year student at Kunming Medical University, Chinese students are allowed to attend classes at the varsity. “We couldn’t do any practicals last year. Now, it is time for the next semester,” said the Kal-petta native.
After unconfirmed reports of Beijing insisting on inoculation as a precondition for allowing in foreign students, the latter submitted a memorandum to the health minister for including them in the priority list of vaccination. Another rumour doing the rounds -- about Tamil Nadu having decided against granting licence to graduates of foreign medical schools who completed their studies online -- had made the student community jittery.
Following this, the student community had called on elected representatives and Shashi Tharoor, MP had already written to Indian ambassador to China to look into the issue. “Normally, this is the time we are required to spend more time in hospitals than in classrooms,” says Amal Nazeer of Kolappuram, Malappuram, who is a fourth year student at Shenyang University.
Recently an update on the Travancore-Cochin Medical Council website -- which said there will be no registration for off-campus mode of foreign medical education -- had added to the anxieties of students. But V G Pradeep Kumar, vice-president of the council, told TNIE that the circular is meant for students pursuing off-campus mode of medical education. Razak Aviyoor, director of city-based Bright Education Consultancy, pointed out that unlike Russia or Ukraine, Chinese authorities are not communicating anything regarding the return of overseas students
Online losing steam