Thousands of Indians studying medicine in China came home for their winter break early last year and have been stranded since then; unable to return as Covid tightened its grip and is now getting more and more concerned as the months go by with no clear when Beijing will lift travel restrictions.
While the online course continued, the lack of access to hands-on courses calls into question their education and future as doctors, several students said. “I took online courses, but we miss the internships completely. I finished two years of my studies but haven’t done an anatomy section yet, ”said Richa Singh * from Delhi, a second year MBBS student at Xi’an Jiaotong University.
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Since most Chinese applications are banned in India, according to Singh *, many students, including her, were forced to install virtual private networks (VPN) to access their classes. While their inability to resume physical classes for much of 2020 was understandable due to global travel norms, students are pushing for a deadline as to when they can return to China.
According to 2019 data, over 23,000 Indian students have studied in various courses at Chinese universities and colleges. Of these, over 21,000 have enrolled in the MBBS program.
China is allowing international students to gradually return, but the second wave of COVID-19 in India has slowed the process for Indian students, according to Shamik Majumdar of Omkar Medicom, a consultancy for Indian students looking to pursue MBBS abroad.
“I have contacted the deans of various universities where Indian students study and the colleges say they want the students to return, but India’s Covid situation is not yet fully under control,” he said.
“As China prepares for the Winter Olympics, it is likely that these students will be allowed to return from September to October this year,” he added.
Nearly 3,000 students recently came together to create a group, Indian Students in China, on Telegram instant messaging software to brainstorm how to get the attention of the governments of India and China.
A Twitter campaign with the hashtag #takeusbacktochina has started. They also reached out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month to solicit government intervention.
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“We are 25,000 Indian students studying at Chinese universities who have been forced to take online courses due to travel and visa restrictions for the past 17 months. Our medical degree requires a lot of practical and group work, but our entry into China and our respective universities have been banned for a year and a half and we suffer every day, ”the letter said.
Ravi Varma *, a fourth-year student at Nantong Medical University, said they had also asked the Indian embassy in China for help, but to no avail.
“We reached out to the Indian embassy in China about four to five months ago … we were told that the Chinese authorities said they were working to call the students back. But we haven’t heard from them yet, ”said the 22-year-old. Varma *, who is also part of the China International Students Union (CISU), an independent body of international students enrolled in universities and institutions in China, said there was no clear deadline from the Chinese authorities as to when they could return.
Both Singh * and Varma * claimed that teaching was resumed at their universities, which allowed students from several countries, including the US and South Korea, but not from India.
Officials from the Indian Embassy in Beijing said they had raised the issue several times with the Chinese government at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Education level to address the plight of Indian students stuck at home and their pleas, with a commitment to obey all specified protocols.
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On March 22, the embassy issued a statement that it “continues to work closely with Chinese authorities, including the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, regarding the concerns of Indian students in China, particularly their early return to colleges / universities in that country.”
Students reported paying their tuition fees and, in some cases, dormitory fees as well. Kareem Khan * said he had to spend hundreds of thousands of rupees every few months.
“At MBBS, internships are in the foreground. Not everything can be understood online, but the university did not understand us. “
“Every time it is time to pay our dues, we are told that our internships will be done when we return, but I don’t think that will happen. We have not received any written assurance, ”said the 21-year-old Hubei University student. Internships are another problem because many doors in Indian companies are closed to them.
The National Medical Commission (NMC) reportedly said last October that online courses for MBBS were only valid for the pandemic and would need to be supplemented with internships when colleges reopen. Some students also claim that several state governments in India have denied internships to people with online degrees. “As part of our undergraduate studies, we are expected to do an internship in a hospital or nursing home last year, but several state governments in India say they will not accept online degrees.”
This has now worried us whether we will be able to practice in India in the future, said Varma *.
Khan * added that if the NMC decides to invalidate online MBBS degrees, their careers will be destroyed. “The NMC can at least enable us to do our internships in hospitals and nursing homes in India. Our universities have allowed that, otherwise we won’t get any clinical practice despite online courses, ”he said.
While students are concerned about their future, Li Bin, China’s vice minister of the National Health Commission, said Thursday that Beijing “cannot relax pandemic controls” due to the prevailing pandemic. “There have been local clusters caused by imported Delta variant cases in some cities recently, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Ruili,” he said.
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“These waves have reminded us that we cannot relax our measures to fight the pandemic,” the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted him as saying. Officials said China must allow the return of foreign students either by September this year or by April next year at the start of the new academic year.
China, which has the coronavirus largely under control after its first report in Wuhan in 2019, is currently vaccinating its population at a hectic pace. To date, it has given approximately 1.34 billion vaccine doses.
Officials expect China, which has over 1.4 billion people, to vaccinate around 70 percent of its population by early next year to achieve herd immunity. Until then, China could continue to block foreign travel. (* Names of students have been changed to protect identity)
source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/indians-studying-medicine-in-china-desperate-to-return-to-college-lack-access-to-hands-on-learning/
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