Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sept 10: India has issued a thorough warning for prospective students who want to study medicine in China, warning them of the problems, including low pass rates, they have to learn Putonghua as the official spoken language, and strict requirements to be eligible to practise in India.
The warning was issued because Beijing’s COVID visa ban has left hundreds of Indian students enrolled in Chinese medical schools stranded at home for more than two years. Over 23,000 Indian students are now enrolled in various Chinese universities, according to official figures. The majority of them are medical students.
China has just begun providing visas to a limited number of students for their return after more than two years of COVID visa restrictions. However, the majority of them had trouble getting home because there are no direct flights and the two nations are still negotiating to set up restricted flying facilities while considering Beijing’s quarantine requirements.
While this was going on, fresh students from India and other countries started enrolling in Chinese medical colleges. In light of this, the Indian Embassy in Beijing on Thursday issued a detailed advisory for Indian students looking to study medicine in China.
The advice contains the findings of the investigations, which described the challenges Indian students encounter in China and the strict requirements they must meet to be eligible to practise medicine in India.
A striking feature of the advice is that, between 2015 and 2021, only 16% of students who completed the exam needed to be eligible to practise in India. Only 6,387 of the 40,417 students who took the Medical Council of India’s (MCI) FMG (Foreign Medical Graduate) Examination between 2015 and 2021 passed.
The advice emphasised that only 16% of Indian students who took clinical medicine courses at 45 authorised colleges in China during that time period passed.
It urged the prospective students and their parents consideration of this issue before choosing to apply for admission to clinical medicine programmes at Chinese universities. Concerning prices, it stated that each university has a unique fee system and urged prospective students to contact the institution directly before applying for admission.
The recommendation included 45 medical schools authorised by the Chinese government to grant medical degrees lasting five years plus an internship of one year. Indian students are encouraged not to apply for admission to any other colleges besides those 45.
The Chinese government has made it plain in its official communications that only 45 colleges in China provide medical programmes in the English language to overseas students.
The advisory said that they cannot join the clinical medicine programme in China which is offered in the Chinese language. They have also clearly stated that any university offering clinical medicine programmes in bilingual mode (English and Chinese language) is strictly forbidden.
However, to participate in clinical sessions, you must study Chinese. Therefore, every student will also need to acquire the HSK-4 level of Chinese. Any student who does not demonstrate this required level of Chinese language proficiency will not receive a degree, it stated.
The warning also made clear that Indian students who are studying medicine in China must seek a licence to operate in the nation where they received their training.
Students must pass the Chinese Medical Qualification Examination and get a physician qualification certificate to practise medicine in China after completing their internship, according to the advice.
“It is important to clear the qualification exam to practice in India as the NMC (National Medical Commission) regulations dated November 18, 2021 state that any prospective student who seeks medical education abroad should necessarily have a license to practice in the country of a graduate after completion of his/her clinical medicine programme before he/she can appear for FMG examination in India,” it said.
