Hundreds of medical students from Bengal who had left China when Covid had emerged there more than two years ago are still attending classes online from home.
Some of the students, who said China was not allowing them to return for in-person classes, are planning to appeal to the state government to allow them to join classes at Bengal’s medical colleges and do internships here.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had on Wednesday announced that her government would allow, subject to the approval from the authorities concerned, medical and engineering students who have returned from the war-ravaged Ukraine to continue their courses here.
The students had gone to China to pursue MBBS courses because of lower costs compared with private medical colleges in India.
Around 23,000 Indian students study in China and most of them pursue medical courses.
According to the students, the average cost of studying a six-year MBBS course in China is between Rs 30 lakh and 35 lakh. In India, a private college charges anything between Rs 70 lakh and Rs 2 crore.
Several students from Kolkata and districts in Bengal said they had returned from China in January 2020 and been attending online classes since. They said the external affairs ministry should speak to the Chinese government and persuade it to allow them to return to that country.
“I returned to Kolkata on January 19, 2020, for the winter vacation. We were supposed to go back to China and join classes in March. However, within a week of my arrival here, I was told by the college not to buy the ticket to return to China until advised,” said a woman in the fourth year of her MBBS course at a college in China. “Since then we have been attending online classes.”
The woman, a resident of Jadavpur in south Kolkata, had enrolled in the Chinese college in 2018.
“We are not exposed to practical classes at all. We had a brief exposure to using cadaver for anatomy classes in two semesters,” she said.
Another fourth-year student, who is from Murshidabad district in north Bengal, said he was facing severe network issues while attending online classes. “Often, I have to drop out of a class midway because of network issues,” he said.
“There are coordinators for each batch. We keep asking our coordinator when we can return to China to attend in-person classes. The only reply we get is that the Chinese government has not yet decided when international students can be allowed back,” the student said.
“It was good to see students from Ukraine being promised accommodation in colleges in Bengal. We are expecting a similar arrangement for us.”
A student from Kakdwip in South 24-Parganas district, around 80km south of Kolkata, said he had been suffering from depression because of the long absence from the college.
“Neighbours and family members are asking when I will return to China. My parents are worried about my future,” the student said.
“I want the state government to allow me complete my internship at a college in Bengal,” he said.
Agencies that facilitate students’ enrolment abroad say hardly anyone wants to study in China because of the current situation.
“We used to send 30 to 35 students from Bengal every year to China. None has shown interest in the last two years,” said Poulomi Mullick, CEO of Infinity, an education consultancy agency.