New Delhi: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has replied to the questions posed by foreign medical students from China and Ukraine by publishing responses to their frequently asked questions (FAQs). The Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate (FMGL) Regulations 2021 will not be applied based on the date of the offer letter or the admission letter, according to NMC.
NMC has maintained through the official notice that students who started their classes before November 18, 2021, and after the said date, are separated by Screening Test Regulations, 2002, and Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate, 2021 respectively.
It further states that Ukraine returnees, who were in the last year of their medical course and have been granted the certificate of completion of course/degree by their respective institute in the East European country while also qualifying for the Foreign Medical Graduate (FMG) exam, are required to undergo a Compulsory Rotatory Medical Internship for a period of two years 'to familiarize them with practice of medicine under Indian conditions.'
The NMC also said that there is no transfer provision in the Screening Test Regulations 2002, therefore international medical students are free to transfer to other medical colleges or institutions as long as they are still covered by those regulations. However, students who are subject to the FMGL requirements are not permitted to transfer. These students must validate their undergraduate coursework in accordance with FMGL regulation 4, and they must finish their whole course work and internship at a foreign medical institution.
The regulatory body also detailed what students can do in order to avoid any hardship on return to India. They are as follows :
1)Minimum duration of undergraduate degrees should be 54 months.
2) Internship for a minimum duration of twelve months in the same foreign medical institution is provided.
3) English is the medium of instruction
4) Mandatory subjects specified under Schedule 1 of FMGL Regulations 2021 are studied
5) Respective professional body is competent to grant a license to practice medicine in their respective country in which the medical degree is awarded, grants registration to the foreign medical students and is at par with the license to practice medicine given to citizen of that country.
To the question of Ukraine returned students enrolling themselves in Indian institutions, NMC replied with a firm no. While adding that it does not recognize any foreign medical university for awarding any medical qualification, NMC also requires students to furnish a certificate that guarantees successful completion of offline practical and clinical training. done in their respective medical institutes.
A draft of the National Exit Test (NExT), which will be introduced for all MBBS students in India, is under consideration and will be placed in public domain after finalization.
