Indian medical students pursuing B.Sc. in Philippines are disqualified for MBBS programme

Indian medical students pursuing B.Sc. in the Philippines are disqualified for MBBS programme

The National Medical Council (NMC) has announced that Indian students studying for a bachelor’s degree in science in the Philippines will be ineligible for the MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) in India, potentially ending thousands of students’ ambitions for a medical career.

The top medical school body has received comments from medical students taking the degree in the Philippines, requesting an exemption to practise medicine in India. According to NMC, a Bachelor of Science degree is a pre-medical education in the Philippines that includes courses like biology and psychology, which are comparable to class 11th and 12th subjects in India. According to NMC, anatomy, biochemistry, biophysics, and microbiology are not taught as part of the degree in the Philippines, although they are essential to be qualified for MBBS in India, according to NMC.

Medical students in the Philippines can choose between two courses: a Bachelor of Science and an MD (Doctor of Medicine). Thousands of aspiring medical students from India travel to the island country each year to study medicine.

“This is for students who applied for medical study in the Philippines, especially for the BS programme, prior to the FMGL (Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate) Regulations 2021.” These students are unable to practise MBBS in India.

It describes the guiding concept for allowing a foreign medical graduate to practise in India and ensures that the foreign medical graduate meets the educational and training standards of an Indian medical graduate.

According to the NMC notice reviewed by Mint, “BS is a pre-medical course in the Philippines, and after completion of which the candidates must appear for the NMAT examination to seek admission to an MD course (Graduate/Primary medical course being equivalent to the MBBS course in India), which is of four-year duration.”

The pattern is a BS Course followed by an MD Course. However, in the BS Course, applicants are not taught courses such as Anatomy, Biochemistry, Biophysics, Microbiology, and so on, but rather Biology, Psychology, and so on, which is equal to class 12th in India. As a result, in Indian medical education, a BS course is a basic degree course preceding the start of a graduate or primary medical course. “The same does not even qualify an applicant for admission to MBBS in India,” according to the notification.

In India, the Graduate Medical Education Regulations 1997 state that candidates must pass the National Eligibility Cumulative Entrance Test (Undergraduate) to be eligible for admission to the MBBS programme, and they must have studied Biology, Chemistry, and Physics in grades 11 and 12.

According to the notification, “Regulations were not made/directed to any one nation, but to be generally applicable to all foreign medical graduates, with the sole purpose of preserving high standards of education and qualifying physicians in India.”

“The NMC, as the regulatory authority, is always striving to enhance the quality of medical education and the healthcare system in India, as well as to provide equitable and fair opportunities for people who wish to study medicine and, as a result, practise medicine in India.” However, practising medicine includes the risk of endangering human life, and the commission “can not compromise with the high standard and quality of medical education in India,” according to the notification.

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