61,708 foreign MBBS graduates appeared in FMGE in last three years, only 8764 passed

New Delhi: While, rising costs of medical education in the country are indeed driving medical aspirants to pursue MBBS courses in foreign pastures, their career prospects of practicing in the country are indeed hurdled by the poor performance in the MCI screening test or FMGE exam, that is mandatory for foreign medical students to clear in order to practice as doctors in India

Providing the details of the dismal pass percentages of candidates in the Foreign Medical Graduate exam (FMGE), that is conducted by the National Board of Examinations, the Health Minister recently informed that while 61,708 foreign MBBS graduates appeared in FMGE between 2015 to 2018, only 8764 have managed to clear the exam.

Information to this effect was given by the Minister of State for Health, Shri Ashwani Kumar Choubey

Section 13(4A) of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 prescribes that any Indian student who obtains medical qualification from a country outside India shall have to qualify a Screening Test i.e. Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE) to be enrolled with the State Medical Council or the Medical Council of India (MCI).

"National Board of Examinations (NBE) which conducts FMGE informed that in the last four years (2015-2018),
around 61,708 candidates have appeared in FMGE out of which 8764 qualified the exam," the minister informed the lower house of the parliament

The medical institutions / Universities of foreign countries admit Indian students without proper assessment or screening of the students' academic ability to cope up with medical education with the result that many students fail to qualify the FMGE. Keeping in view of the same, MCI regulations have been amended to make it mandatory for the Indian students to qualify NEET to pursue foreign medical course.

Providing details about the country-wise performance, the minister informed that of the candidates that appeared in the exam, maximum were from China, Russia Federation, Kyrgystan and Ukraine.

Out of the 61, 708 medicos, 20,314 had pursued MBBS from China while 11,724 candidates completed their UG medical education from Russia; making these countries the most popular choice for Indian students to pursue MBBS course.

If you want the medical college wise performance in FMGE, click on the following link

Read Also: More failures than passes with MBBS aboard: NBE releases three year FMGE report card, Get country wise and college wise details