At a time when India and Russia celebrate the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations, Indian students in Russia continue to face uncertainty over mutual recognition of medical and other degrees, pay heavy fees due to involvement of middle-men in admissions and are expelled in middle of their courses.
In order to address some of these issues, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Monday is hosting a day-long conference involving the students groups, Russian university representatives, education consultants and Russian Government officials.
The MEA plans to take up these problems with various stakeholders and try resolving them by engaging the Russians in order to boost student exchanges between the two countries.
Russia is a popular destination for education among Indian students with nearly 6,500 of them currently studying in various educational institutes there. Majority of these students are pursuing medical courses while others are doing engineering, economics, aviation and management. On the other hand, about 750 Russian students are studying in India at present.
The main issue concerning students remains mutual recognition of educational qualifications between India and Russia. While India recognises only high school certificates obtained after 12 years of schooling, the Russian school education is for 11 years.
On the duration of courses, India insists on the mention of 3-4 years duration for Bachelors/Diploma courses in Science, Social Science and Humanities, while Russia has different durations of courses and does not wish to mention the period of such duration. Besides, Masters in India is a two-year course while most of the Masters courses in Russia are of one year duration.
Lack of recognition of some of the Russian degrees by the Medical Council of India and the poor success rate in the MCI conducted Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) of the students who have studied in Russia adds to the post-education problems of Indian students.
“Due to the non-recognition of Medical Equivalence Qualification (MEQs) between the two countries, Indian students are reluctant to avail of educational prospects in Russia and similar problems are encountered by the Russian students desirous of higher studies in India,” sources said.
With regard to medical education in Russia, there were complaints about Indian students being expelled from Russian university on flimsy grounds while they were studying in 4th or 5th year of medical courses. Indian medical students have also complained that they were forced to study in Russian language in the very next year which gives them no option but to move to another institution where the medium of teaching is English.
Several students who are unable to adjust well with the climate of a particular region in Russia are also compelled to change the university. However, such migrations are prohibited by the MCI as it does not consider the ‘Eligibility certificate’ issued earlier to these students as valid in case of change of the institution.
Sources said that in many cases, the problems faced by the students are genuine and deserve sympathetic consideration of the MCI to for one-time waiver for ‘Migration’ on case-to-case basis.
Another major problem faced by the Indian student community in Russia, especially in the medical field is due to the involvement of the contractors or the educational consultants, hired by the institutions for the admission process. Educational consultants charge almost 200 per cent more compared to the University education fee putting three times burden on the students.
Education in Russia has been a subject of intense debate over the past several years, following the break-up of the Soviet Union. Russia inherited the Protocol on Equivalence of Certificates, Degrees and Diplomas which was earlier concluded between India and USSR in November 1987, and is presently in existence but needs to be replaced in view of the current requirements. The two countries are negotiating an Agreement/Protocol on Mutual Recognition of Educational Degrees/Diplomas (or Academic qualifications) to finalise agreement enabling Indian students to avail of educational opportunities in Russia.