Published on : Nov 06, 2015
Not only consumer products, India receives thousands of ‘made in China’ doctors. China contributes the largest number of MBBS doctors to India, which is then followed by Russia, Ukraine, and Nepal, as stated by the National board of Examinations that conducts screening tests for Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE).
Introduced in 2002, FMGE is a voluntary entrance test, which is a qualifying exam for Indian students that hold medial degrees obtained from other countries with the intent to practice medicine in India. The exam is recognized by the Medical Council of India.
Between 2012 and 2014, 11,825 Indian students that have MBBS degrees from China took the FMGE test. In that period Indian students that have MBBS degrees from Russia were 5,950 and 3,163 with degree from Nepal. As stated by experts, the rush for foreign destinations is fuelled because of failure to get admission in Indian colleges. Every year, more than 5 lakh students appear for entrance exams for MBBS from government colleges, of which only 4,500 receive admission.
Although the U.K., Singapore, and Germany attract candidates for MBBS programs, the numbers are much smaller than the number of students that go to China and Nepal mainly due to high cost of education in European institutes.
In the recent years, the number of students that receive training in countries such as China and Russia has risen sharply, however, these students need to clear the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) to obtain provisional or permanent registration either with Medical Council of India or with the state council. However, there is an impression that the doctors trained from these countries do not have the caliber compared to those trained in Indian medical institutions.
It is the National Board of Examinations that ranks foreign universities or medical institutes on the basis of performance of the candidates in the FMGE screening test.