The National Medical Commission (NMC) recently published a notice announcing its approval of the academic mobility programme that the war-torn Ukraine is allowing its medical college students to participate in, allowing them to finish their education in other nations around the world.

When contacted, an NMC official said the order does not mean that the students will be allowed to continue their course in colleges in India.

The latest “no-objection” essentially applies to students who gained admission to Ukrainian medical colleges after new regulations came into force in November 2021, the official said. The other students were free to continue their education in other countries under earlier regulations, which were ambiguous on such transfers.

Under Ukraine’s mobility programme, the degree will be issued by the parent Ukrainian university, the NMC notice said.

India’s position remains unchanged on not allowing medical students in Ukraine, whose studies were disrupted by the Russian invasion, to continue their education in Indian colleges.

“There is no such provision in the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 and the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 as well as the regulations to accommodate of transfer medical students from any foreign medical institutes to Indian medical colleges,” MoS Health Dr Bharti Pravin Pawar had informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply in July 2022.

The NMC notice stated: “It is informed that the mobility programme offered by Ukraine has been considered in the Commission in consultation with Ministry of External Affairs, wherein it was intimated that the Academic Mobility Program is a temporary relocation to other universities in (a) different country globally. However, the degree will be awarded by the parent Ukrainian university.”

It said: “The Commission hereby conveys its No-objection for academic mobility program in respect of Indian Medical Students who are studying in Ukraine provided that other criteria of Screening Test Regulations 2002 are fulfilled.”

Last year, the Screening Test Regulations 2002 were replaced by the Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations 2021, with stipulations on course duration, subjects and the maximum number of years in which to complete the course.

The 2002 regulations did not have any specific clause barring transfers to universities in other countries. The new 2021 regulations, which came into effect last November, state that the entire course, training and internship need to be done in the same university outside India.

The NMC official said this is the reason why the students who joined after November 2021 — for course cycles in Ukraine that started in September 2021 and January 2022 — weren’t able to obtain transfers to other countries. “This (the NMC notice) will allow these students to go to any other country, other than India, with similar courses to complete their education,” the official said.

In July, following directions from the Supreme Court, the NMC allowed medical students from Ukraine and China, who had completed their course before June 30, 2022, but were unable to complete their internship, to appear in the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE).

The FMGE is a screening test that foreign medical students have to clear to practice in India. They also have to complete a two-year internship in the country lieu of missed clinical training.

An estimated 18,000 medical students returned from Ukraine after Russia invaded the country in February. Around 3,000 to 4,000 Indian students joined medical courses in Ukraine every year over the last five years, based on data on the number of students who appeared for the FMGE examination.