Israeli medical students learning in Ukraine will be receiving aid for continuing their studies from the Sheba Medical Center and Cyprus' University of Nicosia Medical School, the two institutions announced on Monday.
The Sheba Medical Center and the Nicosia Medical School will offer transfer opportunities for Israelis currently enrolled in medical studies in Ukraine, in a scheme modeled after Sheba's "Second Shift Program" from the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which allowed Israeli medical students abroad to finish their studies at home.
“One of the consequences of this terrible war is the damage caused to academic studies for those studying to be physicians,” said Prof. Gadi Segal, Head of the Sheba Education Authority. “Through this program, eligible students will be able to salvage their careers by being transferred first to UNIC and then to Sheba.”
UNIC will determine the criteria for acceptance of students from Ukraine, while Sheba staff will select appropriate students according to the Israeli Ministry of Health regulations.
“On the one hand, we can save these students’ medical careers, but at the same time we can also produce high-level physicians for Israel,” said Yoel Har-Even, Sheba Global Director. “We can minimize both the personal damage for the students and the national damage of losing Israeli doctors.”
Sheba and UNIC have been working together to train Israel's medical professionals for a decade, and hundreds of their graduates are currently working in Israeli healthcare.