Out of Bangladesh fire, Indian students find themselves in the frying pan

On 18 July, Suhana Nongrum, a third-year MBBS student from Shillong, found herself in a desperate situation. Studying in Sylhet, Bangladesh, Nongrum and a group of fellow Indian students had to make a hasty decision to leave their hostel, joining the exodus of scholars who had fled the day before. In a minute-long phone call to her father, Nongrum asked him to wait at the border in the wee hours of the morning.

The drive to the border, usually a brisk 40 minutes, stretched into a tense hour. Police roadblocks added to the anxiety as officers stopped the students near the campus, questioning their decision to leave. "They wouldn’t let us go until we said we were leaving at our own risk," Nongrum recalls. "There was no help from them; they were just following procedure."

Nongrum and her friends had to wait for about three hours at the border, till the authorities opened it.

The student-led protests and subsequent violence that erupted in Bangladesh in July left thousands of Indian nationals stranded, half of them students like Nongrum, caught in a struggle to return home. Thousands of Indian students were similarly caught in a quandary when Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022—they could try and return to India, but what happens to their education after?

Over 7,200 Indian students have returned to India till 1 August 2024, minister of state for external affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh said in a written response in the Rajya Sabha earlier this month.

External affairs minister S. Jaishankar informed the Lok Sabha on 6 August that around 19,000 Indian nationals, including 9,000 students, remain in Bangladesh.

Growing crisis

The chaos in the neighbouring country has left many Indian students anxious about whether they will be able to return to Bangladesh to complete their studies. Besides their safety, they are worried about the loss of their academic year and the recurring threat of internet shutdowns, which sever their only connection to loved ones back home. Reports of attacks on Hindus have also fuelled fears among Indian students.

As the violence escalated, many students who had planned to begin their studies in Bangladesh this year are now reconsidering their options, looking at other countries for a safer alternative.

Preetha Vijayasankar, who returned to her hometown in Madurai, said even if the situation normalizes, she may not go back to Bangladesh till the Indian government notifies that the neighbouring country is safe for students.

The unrest in Bangladesh began over a month ago when students demanded the removal of a controversial quota system that reserved 30% of government jobs for the families of those who fought in the 1971 War of Independence. The Supreme Court eventually overturned the rule, but the protests quickly spiralled into a larger movement against the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Also Read: Bangladesh’s economic rise and the new crisis, in charts

The violence that ensued left over 300 dead, with thousands arrested, culminating in a mass protest that led to Hasina’s resignation and her flight to India. On 7 August, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was appointed the country’s interim leader, tasked with restoring order.

Nearly 650 people have died in the Bangladesh violence between 16 July and 11 August, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Office has said in a report.

Quest for affordable education

For many Indian students, the decision to study in Bangladesh was driven by the lack of affordable options back home. Nongrum, for instance, had cleared the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Neet) twice—in 2020 and 2021—but failed to secure a seat in a government medical college. Thousands of students face the same dilemma every year, turning to countries like Bangladesh, where medical education is more affordable than in India's private colleges.

The numbers tell a stark story: More than 2.4 million students appeared for Neet this year, competing for only about 100,000 government seats. For those who don't make the cut, the cost of studying in private medical colleges in India can range from ₹25 lakh to as much as ₹1.5 crore, depending on the institution's reputation, ranking, and location.

Nongrum will be spending over ₹32 lakh for her entire five-year MBBS course in Bangladesh, including accommodation—an option still feasible for her family. Nearly 40% of Nongrum’s batchmates in Bangladesh are fellow Indians, many of whom chose the country for similar reasons.

While several aspiring doctors from India also opt for countries like Russia and Germany, the travel costs, living expenses, and language barriers lead many students, especially those from smaller towns and cities, to opt for Bangladesh.

Every year, 20,000-25,000 Indian students go abroad for MBBS, with the number expected to grow by 10% annually between 2023 and 2028, said Mamta Shekhawat, founder of Gradding, an organization that helps students study abroad.

Popular courses among students aspiring to go abroad include MBBS, MBA, engineering, computer science, and IT with countries such as China, Russia, Ukraine, Nepal, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, being the preferred countries due to affordability issues.

In recent years, countries like the Philippines, Indonesia, and Bangladesh have also become increasingly popular destinations for MBBS students, especially among those from smaller towns and cities.

In 2024, around 1.34 million Indian students were pursuing higher studies abroad, up from about 1.32 million in 2023, and 907,000 in 2022, according to the ministry of external affairs.

A key reason why students choose Bangladesh for MBBS is the relatively high success rate in the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE), a requirement to practice medicine in India.

"About 30% of medical students attain their degree in the first attempt," noted Shekhawat. However, FMGE has turned rather challenging over the years, with only 20.89% of students passing this year.

She says this year’s budget allocation for education also remains disappointingly low, and incidents such as the recent NEET fiasco have discouraged students from pursuing medical studies here. “Private colleges need significant enhancements to match the standards required and in terms of affordability," Shekhawat added.

Saba (name withheld), a third-year MBBS student who is now back in her hometown, Srinagar, has taken a loan to complete her studies. “This situation will delay my tenure. We were supposed to have our next term in September and by November we would have started our fourth year, but now we have no clue on what is going to happen next."

MBBS students had faced a similar situation during the Russia-Ukraine war. Around 18,282 Indian nationals, mostly medical students, were evacuated from Ukraine to India. But, after India could not offer a solution to all these students, Russia offered these students to complete their studies.

Companies, such as Leverage.biz which runs the study abroad platform Leverage Edu, have been assisting students in finding alternative study options during this crisis.

Several students who took admission in Bangladesh this year have withdrawn their admission applications, and a sizable portion has enrolled in Indonesia, which already has over 1,500 medical students, said Shekhawat.

Uzbekistan is another favoured destination for Indian students, with around 3,000 aspirants taking admission to the Samarkand Medical University in 2023, according to a report by PTI.

For now, as violence and political instability escalate in Bangladesh, thousands of Indian students remain in limbo, torn between the uncertainty of returning to complete their education and the harsh realities of limited opportunities at home.

Also Read: Freedom and linguistic identity: Is Bangladesh losing its anchor?