Indian students find strength in numbers at Ukrainian medical schools (VIDEO)

Tarun Singh, 21, a three-year Indian student at Kyiv Medical University, believes that Ukraine is a great option to chase his dream of becoming a surgeon.

For him and thousands of other students from India, returning home with a Ukrainian medical diploma, valued and recognized in India, offers a chance to secure a well-paying and prestigious job in the medical field.

“Everyone and everywhere (in India) is dreaming to become a doctor,” Singh says. “From year to year, the demand is only growing.”

Currently, there is one doctor for more than 10,000 people in India, far fewer than recommended by the World Health Organization. As a result, the country with 1.3 billion people needs an additional 600,000 doctors to satisfy public healthcare needs, according to a report by the U.S.-based Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy.

This demand has contributed to a five-year trend in which students from India comprise the largest number of foreign students coming to study in Ukraine, with 95% of them studying in medical universities.

Since 2016, the number has almost doubled, reaching around 14,960 as of Jan. 1, 2019. According to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, 87% of them come with help from educational agencies.

Julia Gearheart, the head of the student council at Kyiv Medical University, says that in India the competition to study medicine is much higher than in Ukraine. Many students who weren’t lucky enough to enter Indian universities or aren’t able to obtain a scholarship at home, where tuition is often as high a $25,000 per year, aim to study abroad.

“They have good reasons to study,” says Gearheart.Indian students from Kyiv Medical University attend a lecture by a specially invited lecturer from India on Jan.16, 2020 to gain additional knowledge that will be necessary for passing exams in Ukraine and later for an exam in their native country after receiving a Ukrainian diploma.

In Ukraine, tuition is often 20% of the Indian price, and 90% of students successfully graduate. Most then return to India, where salaries start at $1,000-$2,000 a month, while the average pay in their country was around $450 in 2019.

“When coming to Ukraine, they are hungry to get as much information as they can. Usually, Indian students are studying very fast,” says Gearheart.

Ukrainian advantages

Although Ukrainian medical education requires six years of study, one year longer than in India, there is no doubt that Indian students still see education in Ukraine as highly beneficial.

For Hardeep Singh, the founder of BobTrade Education Group, one of the largest providers of foreign students to Ukraine, including from India, the reasons are crystal clear.

“In Ukraine, the quality of education is much higher than in many other countries, like Russia, China, Georgia, Philippines, Armenia, Kazakhstan,” he says.

Another big advantage of Ukrainian medical universities, mainly concentrated in Kharkiv, Odesa, Zaporizhia and Kyiv, is that classes are available in English.

“In Russia, it’s half in Russian, half in English,” says Singh.

Arjun Sudarsan, a first-year student at Ukraine’s Bogomolets National Medical University, came to Ukraine hoping to become a dermatologist, another under-represented specialty in India.

When choosing among several counties including China and Armenia, Sudarsa decided to come to Ukraine. He also started studying the Latin language.

“In India, we don’t have a faculty to study Latin. It’s a great eminence for us to learn this language,” says Sudarsan.

In addition, when students graduate in Ukraine, they have to pass an additional exam in India in order to obtain their doctor’s license. “They have a really strong selection (in India) and the questions are very meticulous,” says Gearheart.

As it turns out, half of the Indian students with Ukrainian diploma pass those exams on the first attempt. To reach such numbers, some Ukrainian medical universities invite lecturers from India so that students have a chance to get knowledge relevant to the exam in India.

For one week, such a lecturer can earn $7,000, according to Singh from BobTrade, whose agency regularly brings such lecturers to Ukraine.

“They know some details in education which Indian students won’t get in Ukraine, but they will need to know them when passing the exam in India,” says Singh.

Adjusting to Ukraine

While Ukraine continues to struggle from Russia’s war in the eastern Donbas region, where more than 13,000 people have been killed since its start in 2014, the war has not deterred Indian students from coming to Ukraine.

“Ukraine is a very good country, it’s very safe because here people always help each other,” says Rupali Sachdala, a second-year student at Kyiv Medical University from Punjab state in India.

“In the first and second year there was a little bit of homesickness, but friends and Ukrainian teachers are so compromising over the year that I don’t find any problem at this time.”

Usually, an Indian student’s family plays a key role in the decision of where to study. “Family always suggests things like that,” says Sachdala.
Singh from Kyiv Medical University had many options like the Philippines, Georgia and Russia. But Ukraine is viewed as a European country in India and looked more beneficial to him.

At first, Sudarsan’s family didn’t want him to study in Ukraine, because of Russia’s war, but they relented. “We are warriors. If you have a will, you will find a way,” says Sudarsan.

Students new to Ukraine say the two biggest problems they face are food, which is different from what they eat at home, and the language barrier, especially the differences between Russian and Ukrainian.

“Every time we’re getting confused whether it is Russian or Ukrainian language,” says Singh.

But when it comes to food, it’s even more stressful until Indians adapt to the cuisine, according to Gearheart.

Many Indian students are vegetarians but find in Ukraine they have to add eggs to their diet in order not to feel hunger. “Sometimes they stop being vegetarians, which is akin to the betrayal of their religion,” she says.

To solve this problem, some agencies started providing Indian cooks in canteens at university dormitories. “At 7 a. m. the dishes are already prepared for students,” Singh from the BobTrade agency says.

Corruption matters

While bribery and corruption are not common in Ukraine’s medical universities, the problems haven’t been erased completely.

Many Indian students at Bogomolets National Medical University asked Singh to transfer them to another Ukrainian university due to the high level of corruption. “Usually, it happens after the first year of study,” he says. The university and its rector, Kateryna Amosova, have faced numerous allegations of corruption that they deny.

Alex Thomas, the owner of Anix Education, a company that also brings Indian students to Ukraine, says English proficiency among university teachers should also be a focus of the Ukrainian government.

“(Poor knowledge of English) is affecting Ukrainian education quality,” Thomas says.