According to official sources, the National Medical Commission (NMC) is actively contemplating enabling final-year medical students who have returned from Ukraine and China to complete their study from their parent universities online and then take the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE) here.
The concession, which is being prepared to assist Indian students who have been forced to discontinue their studies owing to the conflict in Ukraine and the epidemic in China, will be a one-time gesture, they added.
Students who pass the FMGE may be permitted to conduct an internship for two years instead of one year under Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) requirements, according to the NMC’s Undergraduate Medical Board (UGMEB) in a recommendation to the Health Ministry.
The increased internship length is intended to compensate for a lack of clinical and practical skills training.
However, first and second year MBBS students from Ukraine and China are unlikely to receive any financial assistance. According to an official source, the UGMEB has advised them to take the NEET (National Eligibility and Entrance Test) test in order to gain admission to a college in India based on their merit.
He explained the suggestion by saying that if students do not agree to the UGMEB plan, they may be permitted to continue their study in a foreign nation.
“CIS nations such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Romania have already demonstrated their readiness to enable applicants afflicted by the global crisis to continue their studies,” the source said.
To appear for FMGE, NMC regulations announced last year require undergraduate courses to be completed from a single institution/university.
Approximately 40,000 medical students from Ukraine and China have returned home. An MBBS degree lasts five and a half years, with nine semesters spread out across four and a half years and one year of internship.
According to a source, the UGMEB has claimed that it is not practicable to accommodate or transfer these medical students from various institutes in Ukraine to Indian medical colleges to finish their credentials for a variety of reasons.
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The NMC believes that the course curriculum of foreign medical qualifications is out of sync with what is mandated under the Indian medical education system and also falls short of its standards.
The UGMEB also mentioned the lack of suitable infrastructure and faculty in Indian medical colleges/institutions to teach an increasing number of medical students from abroad.
The NMC and Health Ministry began deliberations after the Supreme Court on April 29 asked the regulatory body to develop a mechanism in two months to allow MBBS students impacted by war and pandemic to finish their clinical training in medical institutions here, according to a source.
There are currently no NMC policies in place to assist Indian students doing medical studies overseas who must return home midway through their academic semester.
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