Indian issues advisory to its medical students in China

New Delhi: Indian students, who had joined the clinical medicine programme in China after November 2021 but had failed to secure license to practice as a medical doctor there, won’t be eligible to appear in the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination, conducted by National Medical Commission, the Indian Embassy in Beijing said on Monday.

“The embassy has apprised the Chinese authorities concerned and medical colleges with a request that they should ensure that all Indian students coming to China for clinical medicine programme are educated, trained and facilitated, so that they can fulfill the requirements of the NMC,” an embassy statement said.

The clarification from the embassy came after queries raised by students and parents regarding eligibility of those Indian students who are pursuing clinical medicine programme in China, for appearing in the qualifying examination in India.

“In this regard, the students and their parents are requested to see the Gazette Notification dated November 18, 2021, by the NMC. It has unambiguously stated in Clause 4(b) that foreign medical students must be ‘registered with the respective professional regulatory body or otherwise, competent to grant license to practice medicine in their respective jurisdiction of the country in which the medical degree is awarded and at par with the license to practice medicine given to citizen of that country’,” the embassy said.

Queries had also been received by the Indian Embassy on whether Indian students could work in Chinese hospitals as “assistant doctor” after completing their medical education in China but fail to obtain medical practitioner license in China. This would help them to earn a living and pay back education loans.

On this, the embassy said that it “has formally approached relevant Chinese authorities to confirm existence of such an option. The embassy will share any information, when received from the Chinese side, in its social media handles”.

Prospective students and parents are advised to directly re-confirm all terms of reference of admission directly from the relevant universities in China, before accepting such admission, the statement added.