Gulte Movie News And Politics
The rising conflict between Israel and Iran is pushing the Indians in Iran into panic. Over 1,000 Indian students, pursuing medicine in the Islamic Republic urged the Indian government to evacuate them to safer places.
According to reports, arrangements are being made to fly over 100 Indian students pursuing academics at the Urmia Medical University in Iran, to the country. This makes one wonder why so many medical students are flocking to Iran. Let us understand what is attracting the students to the Islamic country. Unofficial estimates state approximately 20,000-25,000 Indian students go to foreign countries to study medicine. They look into all better viable options, apart from the English speaking nations, to pursue medicine.
The MEA’s 2022 data states that over 2,050 students got enrolled in Iran, a majority of them in the medical stream, at institutions like the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University and Islamic Azad University. Currently, around 1,500 Indian students are pursuing medical degrees in Iran, in various universities like Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences and Kerman University of Medical Sciences.
Indian students seek better options outside the country owing to the cut throat competition in the medicine entrance exam. Nearly 23 lakh students appeared for the last held NEET-UG exam, against the 1.1 lakh MBBS seats available in the country. While the total number of medical seats is less, there are only 55,000 seats in government medical colleges where the tuition fee is within the reach of middle-class families. In private colleges, the fee is exorbitant.
Compared to the hefty fee in private medical colleges in India, the college fee and living expenses are affordable in Iran, making it more preferable. Significantly, pursuing medicine in Iran is more affordable than in neighbouring Bangladesh. While pursuing a five-year medical course in Iran would cost Rs 14-15 lakh, the same would go up to Rs 40 lakh in Bangladesh.
Further, Iran offers many scholarships to lure Indian students to the country. Modern infrastructure, integrated curriculum and early clinical exposure are other added advantages for Indian students at the Iranian medical institutes. The Iranian medical universities are recognized by the National Medical of India to enable Indian students graduating from Iranian institutes to practice medicine in India after clearing the FMGE (NEXT) exam.
The affordable cost of the medical course in the foreign countries is making Indian medicine students look towards other nations. For years, many Indian students had pursued medical education in Russia, Ukraine, Philippines, Bangladesh, China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, pursuing medical course would cost anything between Rs 20-Rs 30 lakh, which is much less when compared to a private medical college in India, where it is likely to cost in the range of Rs 50 lakh-Rs 1.75 crore or even more.
It is worth mentioning the Indian government had to evacuate medical students from Ukraine too, when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. During the Russia-Ukraine war, more than 18,000 Indian students pursuing medicine and engineering in Ukraine were shifted out of the zones where the threat of conflict was more in Ukraine.
