HYDERABAD: While the war in Ukraine has left a traumatic impact on Indian students studying there, it has not deterred others who wish to study MBBS abroad, if one goes by the number of enquiries education consultants continue to receive from those keen to pursue medicine in a foreign country.
The only difference now is that parents and aspirants alike have shifted focus from Ukraine to other destinations like the Philippines or Georgia. Ukraine was a preferred destination owing to factors like cost and recognition of the degree by several countries etc. With this easy option, along with the option of China now seemingly out of reach, parents have shifted focus to other countries.
“The Philippines is emerging as a new preferred destination because the curriculum there is quite similar to what is taught in American medical schools. This opens up avenues for students to try and pursue post graduation in the US by taking exams there eventually,” said Vijay Kumar, Training Lead, Career Plus, an education consultancy in the city.“With the Ukraine and China options appearing to be difficult now, students are more keen on the Philippines,” Vijay Kumar said.
Destinations like Georgia are also becoming the new favourites for their lower fee structures. “Like in the previous years, this year too we have received over 250 enquiries on how to pursue medicine abroad. The issue is that even if there are seats in India and even if the fees is not a big issue, the quality of education in most private medical colleges is not up to the mark with no sufficient faculty and infrastructure,” said Veerender Reddy M, CEO, Yashwika Abroad Education Services.
He noted that the charm of studying medicine abroad is not likely to diminish anytime soon considering the degrees hold value across countries.However, health advocacy groups in the state provide a completely different take on the issue noting that medicine as a professional course is going the engineering way, with way too many graduates in the market with no jobs.
“Telangana has roughly 5,500 MBBS seats but only 1,500 PG seats which means 4,000-odd medical graduates don’t do post graduation. The current situation is such that medicine is being pursued for money or under family pressure but there are no options to pursue PG and even worse, fewer jobs,” said Dr Mahesh Kumar, Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA). He said, “Advice to parents is to look for alternative careers in healthcare instead of pushing for MBBS either in India or abroad as there is a saturation in the market.”