-Shreyosi Chakraborty

Aniket Banerjee, the only veterinary student from West Bengal who had fled from the war-ravaged state of Ukraine in February, has finally managed to bag a seat at The West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences (WBUAFS) and continue his education here in Bachelor of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry.

The student from Kyiv’s National University of Life and Environmental Sciences was pursuing Veterinary Medicine and was in his third year when the war broke out in Ukraine.

“The Mamata Banerjee government formed a panel and selected me on the basis of an examination which is equivalent to NEET. Previously, even before NEET was introduced in the curriculum, the WBUAFS university authorities, being an anonymous body, used to conduct the entrance examinations. Since this is a one-of-an incident and a special case, I was given a seat and allowed to continue my education with the ongoing first-year students,” said Aniket.

The university provided Aniket with the registration and later appealed to the Veterinary Council of India (VCI) for the registration from their end. “In other medicine courses, it is essential to receive both the Centre and state government’s registration but in case of Veterinary Medicine, an affiliation from the state is also acceptable. And since it is an anonymous body, a Bill was also later passed on special grounds which will be useful to receive the affiliation from VCI,” said he.

Aniket wanted to join the third-year batch since he was pursuing his sixth semester in Ukraine. The 22-year-old student says that “since there was less time for verification of documents, I was admitted to the ongoing first-year batch.”

Speaking about his dreams of completing his education from Ukraine, Aniket was at a complete loss of words. “The situation in Kyiv is very unpredictable. At times, it becomes stable but again once in a week missiles and bombardments are heard in the outskirts. My friends from Ukraine are locals and they do not have any other options rather than staying back but for foreigners like us, it is not possible to go back to an unsafe situation. A constant fear of death lurking behind cannot be dealt with for a very long time. Also, there are frequent power cuts and basic amenities too are lacking.”

Further to the conversation with EducationWorld, Aniket explains that the budget for completing this six-year course also has increased by three folds. “The standard of living has increased, amenities have reduced and lifestyles have changed. There are hardly any jobs for locals. It would be difficult to survive on savings. Employers cannot pay salaries and the local people too are trying to flee the country and settle elsewhere.”

The Veterinary Medicine course in Ukraine was a recognized Masters’s degree programme. “It would have been easier to get a job in an European country after the completion of a bridge/certification course. But in this case, WBUAFS’s course is recognised as a Bachelor’s Degree course and is a four-and-a-half-year course and I will have to further complete my Post Graduation for the next two years after completion of this course.” Apart from these, the young vet student is also considering taking up government jobs in West Bengal.  

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