NMC Notified Foreign Medical Graduates To Clear NExT For Internships in India

National Medical Commission (NMC) has framed a new policy for the Foreign medical graduates (FMGs). According to the NMC, foreign graduates will now have to qualify the National Exit Test (NExT) along with fulfilling conditions specified in the Foreign Medical Graduates Regulations, 2021, for provisional registration for internship with the concerned state medical council.

However, students studying in Indian medical colleges will have to clear the qualifying examination of their respective institutions to be registered. The NExT effectively replaces the Foreign Medical Graduates Exam (FMGE).

After completing their four and a half years in their course, MBBS graduates have to undergo one year of internship in designated hospitals.

NMC’s “Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine Regulations, 2023” state that both Indian and foreign medical students have to clear the proposed NExT exam to get themselves registered in the National Medical Register (NMR) for licence to practice.

NExT will serve as a common qualifying final year MBBS exam, a licentiate exam to practice modern medicine and for merit-based admission to postgraduate courses and a screening exam for foreign medical graduates who want to practice in India. 

NExT will be held next year and is likely to be conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, official sources told news agency Press Trust of India on Thursday.

Last month NMC provided “one-time relaxation” to FMGs complete internship in India. It provided a list of recognised non-teaching hospitals for Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) issued by the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI) for one year (upto May 2024), for internship for FMGs only.

NMC guidelines also stated that those students who have studied in war-stricken countries like Ukraine and Russia must pursue a two-year internship, while others will have to follow a one-year internship. The guidelines list 679 designated hospitals across the states where foreign medical students would be allowed to pursue their internships till next May.