Beijing, November 7
India has apprised China of the recent stringent regulations issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC) for Indian students studying in Chinese medical colleges to obtain permission to practice back home and asked authorities here to ensure that the students are qualified to comply with the new rules.
In September, the Indian Embassy in Beijing issued a detailed advisory for prospective Indian students wanting to study medicine in China cautioning them of pitfalls, including poor pass percentage, mandatory learning of Putonghua, and stringent norms to qualify to practice in India.
After over two years of covid visa restrictions, China recently started issuing visas to a select number of students to return.
The Chinese medical colleges, meanwhile, began enrolment for new students from India and abroad.
In this background, the Indian Embassy here issued a comprehensive advisory on September 10, highlighting stringent norms they face to qualify for practice in India, which included obtaining a licence to practice in China.
The Embassy in its press release on Monday said it has apprised the Chinese authorities concerned and medical colleges with a request that they ensure that all Indian students coming to China for clinical medicine programmes are educated, trained, and facilitated so that they can fulfil the above requirements of the NMC.
“Any student, who joins a clinical medicine programme in China after November 2021 and fails to obtain a licence to practice as a medical doctor in China, will be rendered ineligible to appear for Foreign Medical Graduate Examination,” it said.
The students and their parents are requested to see the Gazette notification dated November 18, 2021, by the NMC, it said.
The Embassy has also approached relevant Chinese authorities to confirm that Indian students can work in Chinese hospitals in a capacity such as “assistant doctors”.
The advisory has listed 45 medical colleges designated by the Chinese government to provide medical degrees in five-year duration plus a one-year internship. Indian students are advised not to seek admission other than the 45 colleges in China.
After completion of the internship, students have to clear the Chinese Medical qualification examination and obtain a physician qualification certificate to practice in China, it said.
It is important to clear the qualification exam to practice in India as the “NMC regulations dated November 18, 2021, state that any prospective student who seeks medical education abroad should necessarily have a licence to practice in the country of a graduate after completion of his/her clinical medicine programme before he/she can appear for FMG examination in India,” it said.
Also, Indian students who are interested in taking a medical qualification from China are required to clear the NEET-UG exam as a prerequisite to pursue medical education abroad, the advisory said.
