The much-awaited online module by the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) — for medical students who have returned from Ukraine — will be launched by Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh on Thursday. The state university will also launch a mobile application to stay in touch with all its stakeholders. The online training module includes digital content of three-month duration for medical students who were studying in Ukraine but had to return home due to the war. Once launched, interested students will be able to register for the completely free online learning module through the official website of the varsity. On Tuesday, The Indian Express had reported about the pending ministerial approval for the online learning module, prepared by the MUHS for Ukraine-returned students. According to information provided by the MUHS on Wednesday, the digital content has been prepared by the varsity in association with a private player — Elsevier, an information analytics company. "This course is a temporary arrangement for continuous learning for students and optional in nature. It is being offered as part of social responsibility. Students completing this will not be able to claim anything else,” said Registrar of MUHS, Dr Kalidas Chavan. Earlier, after receiving a directive from Deshmukh, the state university had started brainstorming about different kinds of assistance that could be extended to students from Maharashtra who were pursuing medical education in Ukraine and had to return home after abruptly suspending their education. The university initially concluded that these students cannot be accommodated in medical courses run here due to great differences in several aspects, such as curriculum, admission procedure, fee structure and evaluation method, among others. The university was then given one month’s time to prepare a plan for a stopgap arrangement for these students, so that their time in India is used productively. While the varsity is trying to connect with Ukrainian universities to understand their stand, it had also planned to reach out to other European universities, which have similar curriculum, to accommodate Indian students. However, after interactions with Ukraine-returned students, who do not yet want to move to any other country, the focus was shifted to making temporary arrangements for them. While the online module is ready, MUHS Vice-Chancellor Dr Madhuri Kanitkar had earlier told The Indian Express that the varsity is now working on preparing a clinical training module for these students. Meanwhile, the university is also going to launch a mobile application — MUHS App — which will be available on playstore for all stakeholders.
