India issues advisory for students planning to study medicine in China, outlines risks

India has released a detailed advisory for prospective students wanting to study medicine in China, cautioning them of the pitfalls, including poor pass percentage, mandatory learning of the official spoken language Putonghua and stringent norms to qualify to practice in India.

India issued the advisory as thousands of citizens studying in Chinese medical colleges remain stuck at home amid Beijing's Covid visa ban. According to official estimates, over 23,000 Indian students are currently enrolled in various Chinese universities. A vast majority of them are medical students.

China has recently started issuing visas to a selected number of students to return. However, most of them struggled to return as there are no direct flights and the two countries are still in talks to work out limited flight facilities keeping in view Beijing's quarantine restrictions.

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The Chinese medical colleges, meanwhile, began enrolment for new students from India and abroad. Against this backdrop, the Indian Embassy in Beijing issued a comprehensive advisory. A striking feature of the advisory is that only 16 percent of the students passed the required test between 2015 and 2021 to qualify to practice in India.

Only 6,387 out of 40,417 students who appeared in the FMG (Foreign Medical Graduate) Examination of the Medical Council of India (MCI) from 2015 to 2021 cleared it. The pass percentage of Indian students who have studied clinical medicine programmes in China in that period in 45 accredited universities was only 16 percent, the advisory underlined.

The advisory 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 those 45 colleges.

The advisory also highlighted that Indian students studying medicine in China have to obtain a license to practice in the country where they obtained the degree. After completion of the internship, students have to clear the Chinese Medical qualification examination and obtain a physician qualification certificate to practice in China, the advisory said.

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Also, the Indian students who are interested in taking a medical qualification from China are required to clear the NEET UG (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate) exam, which is the entrance examination for undergraduate medical education in India, as a prerequisite to pursue medical education abroad, the advisory said.

It advised prospective students and their parents to look at the study conducted by the National Board of Examination on the pass percentage of students who had studied in various Chinese universities.

It also advised the students who are planning to enroll in any university in China to ascertain whether the university is on the list of 45 universities, the duration of the course (as it varies from university to university), the curriculum being offered, the language of instructions, mode of education (online or offline), fee structure and visa requirements before proceeding to China.

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The advisory noted that China's Ministry of Education has not published any separate ranking of various Chinese universities which offer clinical medicine programmes. However, the embassy prepared a table as per the pass percentage of Indian students in the FMG Examination the link of which is provided in the advisory.

The advisory said prospective students may wish to make their judgment while deciding to choose the university as the Embassy or the National Medical Council of India has not done any ranking or evaluation of the quality of education offered by these universities to foreign students in China.