Sri Lankan medical students stranded in Manipal University
Foreign students who recently enrolled in medical courses in Indian institutions have been left high and dry due to a recent Supreme Court of India (SCI) ruling requiring a compulsory National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) to be taken before admission. In the case of one well-known institution, Manipal University, a flurry of court cases, hearings and rulings had led the university to believe that NEET was applicable only to local (Indian students). It was on this basis that the university proceeded to admit foreign students without NEET. This week, confusion continued to prevail with four Sri Lankan students battling it out, through their parents, in New Delhi to see whether central government intervention would help. A Sri Lankan student Christine Shenale Silva, started her dental course on September 16 at the Manipal University after fulfilling entrance requirements for the 2016-2017 batch. She says after attending the course for one week all the foreign students following medical course in that university were asked to leave as they have not cleared NEET as per the SCI ruling.
Along with several parents of foreign students Shenale’s father, Dr. Thilak De Silva has flown to India and is now in New Delhi to work out a solution to overcome this debacle. He told the Business Times (BT) over the telephone that as the SCI ruling is binding the only option they have is to involve the Sri Lankan Government to approach the Indian Government. He said that their fear is that these foreign students might lose all the chances to continue their medical study courses and even if the Indian authorities allow them to sit NEET by clearing a hurdle of barring foreign students to sit the test, they might lose one year as already registrations were closed for the 2016-2017. He said that they have already approached the Sri Lankan High Commission in India, in turn the High Commission has alerted the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry and he said that the process is being fast-tracked.
He said the university should have at least alerted the students that there is a legal battle with regard to the pre-requisite NEET entry by students who follow medical courses in India and also it would have been the duty of these medical institutions to clear the issue of NEET as this examination is only meant for Indian students and there is no provision in the conditions of NEET for foreign students to sit. Dr. De Silva said that in his daughter’s acceptance letter or in any other document like the application, there is no mention of any impending hindrances and now they were caught unawares and have become helpless for no fault of theirs as the SCI ruling is binding. In Colombo, Pathe Study Medicine – a local agent for Manipal University – said they had sent students for the current 2016-2017 batch but declined to comment on whether these students were informed in advance of the dispute over the pre-admission requirement. Ms. Shenale Silva had got admission by directly applying to the university instead of going through a local agent.
The number of students admitted to MBBS/BDS courses under the foreign category for the academic year 2016-2107 in Manipal University is 22 and they come from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, US, Canada, Australia and Nepal. Dr. De Silva told the BT that they are disheartened by the situation faced by their children and said that now they have to run from pillar to post. He said that it is a very sad thing that India is closing the doors to foreign students, which is not conducive at this point when Sri Lanka and India are negotiating to sign an economic, trade and services pact where one of the clauses there is in sharing knowledge between two countries. ”Please allow our children to study in India at least,” he said adding that the university agreeing to refund the full payments is not the solution. The university says that while the Indian government on the one hand encourages foreign students to study in India, on the other hand, NEET has to be taken by everyone where there is some ambiguity as to whether it applies to foreign students.
The background to this festering issue is that NEET was initially proposed to take place from 2012 onwards. However, for several reasons, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Medical Council of India (MCI) deferred NEET by a year. The test was announced by the Government of India and was held for the first time on 5 May 2013 across India for local students seeking admission for both undergraduate and postgraduate Medicine. But on July 18, 2013, the SCI gave a ruling in favour of 115 petitions opposing NEET and cancelled the NEET examination and announced that the MCI should not interfere with the admission process in colleges. Then NEET was restored on April 16, 2016, after a five-judge Constitutional bench recalled the earlier verdict and allowed the Central Government and the MCI to implement a common entrance test.
Manipal University’s Deputy Director, International Admissions – Diana Britto in a letter to Dr. De Silva said that after the SCI issued an order last April saying that NEET was applicable to all students, there was still ambiguity as to whether it applied to foreign students. Thereafter the university sought clarification from the Karnataka High Court at Bangalore which declined to grant any relief but directed Manipal to approach the Supreme Court to ascertain whether an exception could be made for foreign students in the 2016-17 batch from NEET. The university went to the SCI which on September 28 refused any relief saying that all foreign admissions to Manipal and other colleges are subject to NEET.