Is an MBBS degree abroad not valid in India?

With many Indian students moving abroad for their education in search of better education quality, better job opportunities and relatively lower costs as compared to India’s private institutes and NRI quota. Medicine, being a serious profession, is not easily granted permission to be practised unless a practising doctor or graduate from another country proves their capability and knowledge in the field to practice in respective nations. Almost all countries have their own licensing examination and so does India.

Thus, the validity of an MBBS degree goes only so far. It does not matter if an arriving candidate comes from ivy league colleges of America or the best of Europe – the very first criterion is to possess a degree from an MCI recognized college.

MCI stands for the Medical Council of India and is a government body regulating medical exams and licensing exams. Therefore, to be able to take a licensing exam, the student must have graduated from an international university that has been recognized by the MCI. If you come from a listed university, your degree is valid in India. When it comes to practising, graduates from these listed colleges need to then take a Foreign Medical Graduates Exam (FMGE), also known as the MCI screening test.

About FMGE

FMGE is conducted by the National Board of Examinations in India (NBE) and is one of the mandatory requirements for an Indian citizen with a foreign degree to practice in India. However, the Medical School should have been listed in the WHO international directory of Medical Schools.

Having been introduced in 2002, this test is conducted twice a year – once in June and once in December, generally on the third Monday or Tuesday of the month.

Aspirants get only three attempts at clearing the FMGE Screening Test, and is considered quite a tough exam for professionals.

The exam is not mandatory for graduates from countries including United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, as long as it’s an MCI-recognized university. As far as the rest of the globe is considered, the answer is quite obvious.

Who can crack FMGE?

As per research and report, here’s what people and media has to say:

“One of the abroad educated doctors said that the exam was way more tough adding that the entire style of the questions was changed. Students further said that the paper was extremely unfair as only 1,697 out of the total 17,789 who attempted the exam were able to crack it.”

“Many students wonder if this is revenge by the government since we appealed to the Medical Council asking it to lower the pass percentage from 50 per cent to 30 per cent so more of us could qualify and help out with Covid-19 duties.”

“Less than 20% with foreign MBBS degrees eligible to work as doctors in India. Those with MBBS degrees from Bangladesh fare the best while the bottom of the list is filled with degree holders from China and Russia.”

A strong reason for these statistics is based on the curriculum a country follows. The more different it is, the more difficult it is to crack FMGE for graduates. At the end of the day, the ability of a candidate to crack an exam is based on hard work and knowledge, irrespective of the college curriculum and atmosphere.

Another option – What’s NEXT?

In 2019, The National Medical Commission of India released a bill replacing the Medical Council of India (MCI), the regulator for medical education in the country under the name of being corrupt. In an attempt to revamp medical education, an exam called National Exit Exam has been proposed.

On the first draft of NMC Bill, it has been mentioned as the National Licensure exam to make the final year MBBS exam serve the purpose while also functioning to be the qualifying exam for medical postgraduate seats.

However, the NEXT is also proposed to replace the Foreign Medical Graduate Entrance Exam (FMGE), which allows MBBS students who graduated abroad to practice in India.

The efforts to merge or replace FMGE with NEXT have been consistent but is still hazy. Yet it stands as a ray of hope to many foreign graduates struggling with the exam.

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