Journalism of Courage
‘MBBS without donation’ were the words that 20-year-old Santosh Yadav read on a pamphlet being distributed outside his medical entrance coaching institute which drew him into the office of a consultant.
Yadav, now a second-year student at west Ukraine’s Bukovinian State Medical University, is a resident of the small town of Himmat Nagar in Nanded. Yadav who comes from a farming family had never heard of the European nation until he set foot into the consultant’s office, who convinced the former that assimilating in the former USSR colony is easy due to a large presence of Indian students.
“As medical aspirants, we are aware of the odds of making it given the number of candidates who appear for NEET and how many make it eventually. Private medical colleges are too expensive in India. I also knew of my chances at getting a government seat and I know my parents cannot pay for a private seat, so when I saw the pamphlet I decided to go and inquire,” said Yadav.
“I had seen these agents a few times, distributing pamphlets or cards outside our coaching centres. When I went to the office of one of these agents, they had all these videos to show to me and photos. They painted a picture of life in a European country with so much facility and promised to take care of everything from admission to housing and food,” he added.
While the Ukraine crisis has brought to the fore the loopholes in the medical education in India and also the fact that several thousand Indian students go to Ukraine each year to study medicine, what is interesting is that most of these students come from Tier 2 or 3 cities or even rural areas and had never heard of Ukraine until they applied for admission.
So how do students end up in Ukrainian universities? Thanks to a well-oiled network of university agents and sub-agents who have made the gap between demand and access to medical education in India their means of sustenance.
How do the agents contact the medical students? Word of mouth and referral by former students is one of the main sources of getting new students. Besides, newspaper and radio advertisements, seminars and study abroad fairs help to attract students.
Tejas Devidas Gaikwad, another student from Nanded, said two boys from the same neighborhood who are his seniors in the same university referred him to a consultant. Gaikwad, whose father is also a medical doctor, said most students end up in Ukrainian universities through referrals from other students.
” I haven’t seen any agent coming inside our coaching or being allowed to talk to us. In fact coaching institutes encourage students for Indian colleges since the chances for clearing the qualifying exam from medical council after completing medical education abroad is not too high. These agents place several ads in newspapers and I had seen one such ad, it was about a seminar that they had organised which I went to attend with some boys from my coaching. There they told us about these options,” he said.
“Besides bank loans which one has to arrange on their own, the agents said they will take care of everything else. Then I asked my childhood acquaintances, who were studying medicine at the same university where I am now and got convinced,” he added.
In some cases, like Yavatmal resident Pratiksha Jadhav, currently in her first year at a Ukrainian university, online advertisements on NEET preparation portals do the trick for agents. “I saw an advertisement on an online website which is popular for its videos and content for JEE and NEET preparation only. Through that I contacted an agent who later convinced me and my family. Right from my admission to a list of what to carry and shop, what to expect while in Ukraine both from the course and life there and even alleviating fears of my parents, the agents took care of everything. My parents just had to arrange for the funds, rest all was taken care of,” she said.
It isn’t just about contacting students in smaller towns, convincing parents of their safety in a country which is unknown to them is the focus of the agents. “They show parents the network which they have there, the number of students currently studying who they placed. Firstly those universities don’t deal with students directly but even if they do, what about language problems that we may face or other cultural things. The agents tell our parents they can ensure we get good rooms, healthy Indian food, safety and so on and hence parents pay up,” said Jadhav.
In fact students say that the role of the agent doesn’t end after ‘recruiting’ a candidate for a university but in most cases, they have far more clout. For example, as the war unfolded and students were trapped in basements of universities, it was the agents they turned to for help in arranging buses for safe transport to borders and airports.
Even in everyday university life, students said the role of the agents or consultants is quite pronounced. “At my hostel, there is a separate mess for Indian students which is run by the same consultancy through which I came to Ukraine, since they have the largest number of students coming to this university. Therefore the consultancy I came through has a lot of clout here, from food to rooms, they can help us and control us also in everything. In many universities here, consultants are made vice deans or incharge of the foreign students and they can take disciplinary action too,” said Yadav.
Students said that maintaining good relations with the consultants might be one of the reasons why word of mouth publicity is high since current students help to spread the word in the next batch once admission season draws near.
Large agents in big cities have a network of subcontractors in smaller towns to recruit students. Many of the ‘big’ agents have exclusivity deals with universities in return for the guarantee of a minimum number of candidates.
“It depends if he is the main agent or representative and what kind of position he holds in the university abroad. They earn anything between Rs 1 to Rs 3 lakh per student,” said Yadav.
