Ukraine medical students have yet to integrate Moroccan universities due to administrative hurdles

Moroccan students returning from Ukraine who have successfully passed university entrance exams are missing classes, due to administrative failures.

The students are still waiting for documents to gain access to private medical institutions, losing a month as classes resumed back in September.

This delay involves 123 students who passed the Ministry’s recent entrance exams, where 34 out of 393 candidates passed in general medicine, 79 in dentistry, and 10 in pharmacy.

The students are having registration issues as a result of administrative failures, which is complicated by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Aside from the administrative delay, parents of the students expressed their shock at not benefiting from the Higher Education Ministry’s approved financial cuts, emphasizing that private institutions impose the same amounts on everyone without regard for the social situation of families.

The financial cost of studying medicine in private institutions in Morocco goes up to MAD 130.000 per year, “an exorbitant amount that most families cannot afford,” according to the parents, who are now urging the urgent implementation of the government-promised cuts for low-income families.

Some students chose to return to Ukraine to resume their studies after receiving notification from their institutions that things had returned to normal in the European country, and that the two forms of attendance, in-person and remote, are implemented.

President of the National Association of Parents of Moroccan Students in Ukraine, Abdelkader El Youssfi told Hespress AR that administrative procedures are delayed despite the start of the academic year, making learning difficult for many students who chose to continue their studies in Morocco.

“Some students’ documents are still in Ukraine, causing their registration to be delayed, with no discounts from private institutions,” he stated.

“Private institutions consider that any reduction in fees will result in collective demands for similar preferential treatment for all students,” he said, reminding of the exceptional circumstances that brought Ukrainian students to Morocco.

“Some students and organizations act strangely against the interests of Ukrainian returnees without government intervention,” he added, pleading that “the homeland is for everyone and urgent government intervention is required.”