Kathmandu, November 24
Nepal’s government has barred students from going to Bangladesh to study medicine following reports that more than 200 Nepalis are studying in colleges that have been ‘blacklisted’ by Dhaka.
The Nepali Embassy in Dhaka recently wrote to Nepal Medical Council saying that more than three dozen medical colleges in Bangladesh, where Nepali students are enrolled, either don’t have adequate infrastructure or are operating without proper permits.
“According to reports from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Education, we have come to know that more than 200 Nepali students are enrolled in ‘blacklisted’ colleges,” Nepal Medical Council spokesperson Dr Dileep Sharma told Onlinekhabar. He said that the council has now barred students from going to Bangladesh to study medicine.
Sharma said that the Nepali embassy in Dhaka is trying to reach a settlement with the colleges so that the students get to transfer to recognised colleges. He added that the council has received a lot of complaints from students in the past few weeks.
According to students, the MBBS course comes with a price tag of Rs 5-6 million, and they are attracted to the South Asian country as it is easy to get a visa there. In 2016, of the 478 Nepali students who went abroad to pursue a career in medicine, 328 went to Bangladesh.
