Beijing, September 10
India has issued a detailed advisory for prospective students wanting to study medicine in China, cautioning them of the pitfalls, including poor pass percentage, mandatory learning of official spoken language Putonghua and stringent norms to qualify to practise in India.
The advisory was issued as thousands of Indians studying in Chinese medical colleges are currently stuck at home for over two years due to 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.
After over two years of covid visa restrictions, China has recently started issuing visas to a select 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.
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 on Thursday for students from India wanting to study medicine in China.
The advisory has results of the studies, which outlined difficulties faced by Indian students in China and the stringent norms they face to qualify for practising medicine in India.
A striking feature of the advisory is that only 16 per cent of the students passed the required test between 2015 and 2021 to qualify to practise in India.
Only 6,387 out of 40,417 students who appeared in FMG (Foreign Medical Graduate) Examination of the Medical Council of India (MCI) from 2015 to 2021 have 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 per cent, the advisory underlined.
“The prospective students and parents may please note this fact while deciding on seeking admission in Chinese universities for clinical medicine programme,” it said.
On the costs, it said the fee structure is different for different universities and advised students to check from the university directly before taking admission.
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 in those 45 colleges.
The Chinese government has “clearly mentioned in their official communication that foreign students can join medical programmes in only 45 universities in English language”.
“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,” the advisory said.
