Context:  Many Indian students are pursuing medicine in Ukraine. The war in Ukraine highlighted the need to strengthen medical education in India.

Why Eastern European countries are popular for Indian medical students?

• Easy Entrance Criteria: There are no entrance exams to pass in order to gain admission to medical schools.(Since 2018, India has made it mandatory for students going abroad for their MBBS to also give the NEET-UG exams).
• Medium of Instruction: English is the medium of instruction. Hence, it is simple for aspirants, and they do not have to worry about learning a foreign language.
• Less Cost: The cost of graduating in medicine in Ukraine is around Rs 15-20 lakh for the entire duration of six years. In India, fees of private medical colleges can range between Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore for a 4.5-year course.
• Less Competition: In Ukraine, there is at least one medical college for every 1.7 lakh people. On the other hand, in India, there is one medical college for every 25.7 lakh people.
• Credit Transfer: In Ukraine, universities follow the European Credit Transfer System, which makes it easy for students to change institutions in Europe during their course.

PM’s remark on Indian medical education
The Prime Minister, on Union Budget announcements on the health sector, stated that many young Indians were going to “small countries of the world for medical education.” He also urged the government 

• a) To encourage the private sector
• b) To set up more medical colleges and hospitals locally, along with cooperation from States, so that such aspirants remain in India.

About medical education and Indian students abroad

• The most sought-after international destinations – for medical education are the U.S., the U.K. and a few West European countries. But these countries are too expensive for most Indians.
• In the last few decades, Russia, China and Ukraine with their historical commitment to public health care have been able to offer more affordable, yet quality, medical education.

Can students study MBBS in foreign universities, practice medicine in India?

• When students return to India with foreign MBBS degrees, they must take the National Board of Examinations’ Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE) to receive a license to practise medicine in India. An analysis of FMGE results showed that only 16.48% of those who applied for the test in 2020 passed it. Only 16.6% of students from Ukraine were able to pass the test.

Key challenge faced in medical education in India

• India’s huge population still continues to be predominantly rural, so make most of the trained medical doctors, paramedics and nurses gravitate towards cities, 
• Nature of medical education: Medical education requires significant infrastructure — land, equipment, and trained faculty at the postgraduate level — all of which are in short supply and unevenly spread across India, 
• Low spending on health: For several years, India’s spending on health care has consistently lagged behind several countries comparable to its size. For this reason, there is barely one doctor for every 1,000 Indians and specialists often a tenth of what is required.

For these reasons, there is an increase in young Indians seeking affordable, quality, health-care education in other countries. Without correcting these deficiencies, India cannot expect to dramatically increase the availability of medical personnel.
What needs to be done to revive medical education?

• Encouraging private establishments to start medical schools might repeat the engineering fiasco. I.e., a plethora of colleges without adequately trained faculty or infrastructure that churn out students who need further skills upgrade to be employable.

The Government must 

1. Make health care the centrepiece of its economic rebuilding, 
2. Provide long-term commitment offering necessary training and post-graduate education, 
3. Ease procedures for establishing medical colleges, 
4. Spend more on infrastructure, and 
5. Provide incentives for a health-care ecosystem to develop in rural areas.

Over time, this will facilitate the growth of private and public medical colleges that could stem the outflow of students aspiring to be doctors.