Ukraine’s medical education losing credibility abroad

But times have changed – for the worse.

Several Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, no longer recognize Ukrainian medical diplomas. Nigeria, the world’s seventh most populous nation, could soon join the list. Its ambassador to Ukraine recently advised against studying in Ukraine.

Yet university representatives in Ukraine say they are losing no sleep over the criticism.

“If (countries) reject diplomas it’s their right. It hasn’t influenced the reputation of the university at all,” said Ivan Letik, deputy rector at Kharkiv National Medical University, which has Ukraine’s largest foreign student population with more than 2,000 enrolled. “We (remain) a leading university among foreign students. Our diplomas are important and highly valued.”

The number of foreign students in the country has steadily grown since the early 2000s, when there were just 20,000. By the end of 2011, more than 55,000 foreign students from 130 countries were studying in Ukraine.

The highest share come from China (9,000) and Russia (6,000), according to statistics provided by the Ukrainian International Education Council, a non-governmental organization that assists in finding education opportunities for foreigners in Ukraine.

But while medical universities have always been the most popular among foreign students, the percentage of foreigners studying medicine has decreased in recent years, to 20-25 percent in 2011, about half of what it was 10 years ago, according to the UIEC.

University management said the decrease hasn’t affected the reputation and work of the universities.
However, experts cite corruption among the major reasons for students choosing Western universities over Ukrainian ones. “Bribery (is the main reason),” said Umair Ahmad Butt, founder and president of the UIEC. “Ukraine could compete with England in terms of education. It has potential.”

Umair Ahmad Butt, founder and president of Ukrainian International Education Council

Visas are another problem. Official prices are $85 for single entry and $200 for multiple entry visas. But complicated, overly bureaucratic procedures mean foreign students often end up having to pay large sums to intermediaries before coming to study in Ukraine, according to Butt.

“Only a few foreign students get visas (for the official price). Others usually (end up) paying $2,000-$2,500,” Butt said.

The standards of medical education itself are another big headache.

Nigerian ambassador to Ukraine Frank Ngosi Isoh recently warned his countrymen against studying in Ukraine, because of the low level of English among Ukrainian tutors.

“One thing I will like to say about education in this place, and this is something we intend to package in a report to government to see how this can be propagated back home – I do not think that Nigerians get the best when it comes to studying in this place in the English language,” he told Nigerian news site Bella Naija on Oct. 16.

Kyiv Post asked foreign students studying at Kyiv National Bogomolets University if they were satisfied with the level of education in Ukraine.

“I’m not really sure about (the quality),” said Frank Douglas, a second year student at who came from the African country of Togo to study in Kyiv.

“Of course the level of education is better in Europe, but studying here is much cheaper,” said Nina Amabetova from Azerbaijan.

Ukraine has 15 medical universities that are licensed to teach foreign students and have English-speaking tutors, according to the UIEC.

The average price for studying medicine is about $4,000 per year for foreigners and $5,000 for those wanting to study in English, which is still much less than in England or the U.S., where tuition prices start at around $30,000.

However, low prices can’t contribute much to the reputation of Ukraine’s education when it’s blackened by the alleged racial discrimination of foreign students.

A scandal which took place in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil in January of this year, involving a local newspaper that published an article describing foreign students from African and Arabic countries as chimpanzees and part of a “black invasion” causing “a rise in criminality, prostitution and diseases,” was one reason the international community feared Ukraine wasn’t ready to host the EUFA Euro 2012 Championship.

Another case involved Olaolu Sunkanmi Femi, a Nigerian student at Luhansk State University. He was accused of the attempted murder of four people, which he allegedly attacked alone while intoxicated, and faces life imprisonment in Ukraine. He has been kept in a Luhansk pretrial detention center since November 2011 while awaiting the court’s decision to move forward with the case.

“Ukraine was always considered a comfortable place to study,” said Butt. “There was no racial discrimination here. Now it happens (often). And it discourages foreign countries (from) sending students here.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Anastasia Forina can be reached at [email protected] and Daria Zadorozhnaya at [email protected].