Final year MBBS students of Ukrainian universities who fled the war-torn country may see light at the end of the tunnel. The Ukraine government has announced that it will cancel the mandatory licensing exam KROK2 and award MBBS degrees to all the final year students without their having to take the exams once the situation normalises. Caught amid a sea of uncertainties, the Ukraine-returned medical students are heaving a sigh of relief as the resumption of online classes and internships have helped restore their confidence.

As per the norms in Ukraine, students pursuing Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy have to mandatorily pass two separate exams — KROK 1 in their third year and KROK 2 in the sixth year — to qualify as a doctor. According to a notification uploaded on the Ukraine government website, the KROK 1 has been postponed till next year while KROK 2 has been cancelled this year which has left the Ukraine-returned students somewhat optimistic. With the backup of a Ukrainian MBBS degree, it may enable them to take the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE), the screening test conducted by the National Board of Examination (NBE) and mandated by the National Medical Commission (previously Medical Council of India) — to qualify for practice in their own country. It is important to pass the FMGE exam to take up a clinical internship in India for without a year of internship, they cannot get the license to practice in India.

“But then, we have to ensure that they are well equipped to handle the Indian patients. Questions will arise as to whether they have completed the mandatory internship period in Ukraine and how many accredited hours of training in each department have they garnered. Only if NMC provides a one-time exception to the rule, can it accommodate the students,” says a senior official from the health ministry on condition of anonymity.
“The NMC can give a leeway to the students only if they have completed their entire MBBS course in Ukraine which is not the case. The other option would be to conduct the final year MBBS course in India which would be problematic as the Ukraine-returned students have not been trained for the Indian evaluation system. In the absence of any university records, it would be a task to gauge the level of students’ training,” says Rajesh NG, professor of Pathology, JIPMER, Pondicherry.

Jagdish Godara, final year student of Uzhhorod National University speaks in like vein. “We do not even have provisional documents which carries the marks of our semester exams. The university, located on the borders of Slovakia, will have to hand over our complete documents and scores to the Indian Embassy for us to get a Ukrainian MBBS degree. Should the university cease to exist, we would like to request the Indian government to provide us the medical degree,” says the 24-year-old from Barmer, Rajasthan, who went to Ukraine to fulfil his government servant father’s dream of becoming a good doctor. “I was supposed to take the KROK2 exam in May and was in the tenth month of my one-year internship when war struck. It has been two months since I am back, but all I can do is take online internship classes and hope for peace to return.”

The same restlessness is evident in Krishan Pal Singh Rathore (23), fourth year student of Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University. “Presently, I am taking my classes online (two daily from 3pm-7pm) which are theoretical in nature though our teachers from the war-torn zones show us the videos of surgeries to give us a clear idea. They are not able to make any promises for the future, but their hard work and kindness has strengthened my resolve to complete my MBBS in Ukraine, if I get a chance,” says the Ajmer boy, whose father has a medical agency while his mother is a housewife. “Cost of medical education along with living expenses amounted to around Rs 7 lakh.per year which made my education so much more affordable. Finances will always be a key consideration in my future plans, whether I transition to Almaty, Hungary or Kyrgyzstan,” says Krishan who returned to India via Budapest and the Hungarian border when it was no longer safe to stay holed up at the campus.