Foreign Medical Graduates From Ukraine Are Permitted To Complete The Course; A Two-Year Internship Is Required: Govt

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has granted foreign medical graduates (FMGs) from Ukraine a one-time opportunity to complete their remaining courses from various countries, the Rajya Sabha was informed by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in a written reply on Tuesday.

Keeping in mind the difficulties faced by medical students who returned to the country as a result of the Ukrainian war, the NMC has allowed Indian students who were in the final year of their undergraduate medicine course and have subsequently completed their studies and been granted a certificate of completion of course/degree on or before June 30, 2022, to sit for the FMG examination.

Among the 2510 students are currently in Ukarine studying in offline mode, 2952 students are studying  in online mode and 242 students are studying in third countries under the academic  mobility scheme, Pawar informed. Through a notice issued on November 22,2023, the NMC, the apex medical education regulator in India, has extended the relaxation to such students for three months.

Furthermore, the Ministry of External Affairs reports that 5,715 Indian students have enrolled in Ukrainian universities for the autumn semester beginning September 2023.

To expand medical education options in India, the government has raised the number of medical colleges and MBBS seats. 157 new medical colleges have been approved under the centrally sponsored scheme (CSS) for creating new medical colleges by upgrading district/referral hospitals, with 108 now operational. The minister also informed an increase of 82 per cent in medical colleges from 387 before 2014 to 706 as of now. Further, there is an increase of 112 per cent in MBBS seats from 51,348 before 2014 to 1,08,848 as of now.