A significant number of students are subject to financial misappropriation as the money they paid were plundered by the agents who coordinate the Russian Medicine degree, Former parliamentarian Sinhala Rawaya President Ven. Akmeemana Dayarathana Thera said.

He said it is discovered that the Agent Companies have been charging exorbitantly than the stipulated fee the aspirants pay the Universities. "For instance, the exact annual course fee of Tver State Medical University is around US$2,750, however the Agents known as ‘REC Campus’ has charged around US$5,500 per student per annum," Ven. Dayarathana Thera said.

"The agent is maliciously blocking Sri Lankan Medical students paying the course fee directly to Tver State Medical University for the full six-year course in Russia and the agents insist the students to pay the hyped fee to the REC Campus," he said.

As per complaints we have received from various parties, the agent has been swindling this money for a longer period of time under the pretext of facilitating the Russian medicine degree," he said.

Moreover, the Sri Lankan Students who join Tver State Medical University are not allowed to enter directly and the University management itself directs to come through REC Campus, the Prelate said.

"We strongly emphasize that the Russian Ambassador’s attention is important, as Tver State Medical University is a Russian state-run University.

Therefore we reiterate that the government must establish direct links with Russian State Universities and allow Lankan Medical students to directly join for their degree.

Hence we strongly urge the authorities to investigate such agencies and blacklist them where it is found that such agencies have been plundering money of innocent parents," the monk added.

"As a recognized Political Party in Sri Lanka, we always voice against the malpractices by these unscrupulous elements and urge to take appropriate action. If no action is taken, we will be compelled to discourage the Lankan students to attend Russian Universities to complete their medicine degree," Ven. Dayarathana Thera assessed. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)