Medical aspirants going abroad rise by 24 per cent

Hyderabad: The number of Indian students going abroad to do their MBBS rose 24 per cent to 17,504 in the 2018-19 academic year. The country has 50,000 MBBS seats for 13 lakh aspirants.

Back in 2015 only 3,398 students who had applied to the Medical Council of India for eligibility certificats to study abroad. The number shot up to 14,118 by 2017.

Dr K.L. Trivedi, senior faculty in a private medical college, said those who wanted to work abroad were opting for foreign universities as they could avail the option of writing the US Medical Learning Examination. “Universities in the Caribbean are offering these opportunities,” Dr Trivedi said.

The most favoured destinations are Russia, China and the Philippines where education is cheap. The flipside is that students have to learn the local language, and write an eligibility test on return to India if they intend to practice here.

But the increasing numbers of students going abroad shows that there is acceptability and opening of opportunities.

Mr Saju Bhaskar, a private medical college owner, said Neet had received 15.9 lakh applications this year against 13.26 lakh in 2018. Medical colleges were increasing the number of seats but not enough to meet demand and students were opting to study abroad, he said