FMGE 2018: Only 15 percent of foreign medical students made the cut, reveals RTI

Ved Prakash Mishra, former chairman of the undergraduate committee in the MCI who headed a panel to introduce changes in the FMGE, said that the test should remain as it is to ensure that "compromised" medical graduates are not allowed to practice as doctors.

New Delhi: A disappointing revelation by the Right to Information (RTI) has surfaced wherein only 15 per cent of students who appeared for the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination, 2018 (FMGE 2018) was able to clear the examination.

According to a recent media report, the percentage of foreign medical graduates, who are willing to serve as doctors in India has been dreadfully low for the past five years.

Any citizen possessing a primary medical qualification awarded by any medical institution outside the country who wants provisional or permanent registration with Medical Council of India(MCI) or any state medical council needs to qualify the screening test (known as Foreign Medical Graduates Examination) conducted by the MCI through the National Board of Examinations (NBE). Only upon clearing the FMGE exam are they allowed to take registration and practice in India

Also Read: A mere 7 per cent foreign medical degree holders clear the FMGE

The figures further disclose the percentage of students who cleared the examination in the year 2017 was just 11% and in the previous year, less than 10% of the students who took the test cleared it. In contrast, between 2010-2013, over 20% of students who appeared in the test, qualified. The year 2014 and 2015 saw a pass percentage of 13% and 11% respectively.

The reasons cited for the disappointing figures related to the pass percentage of foreign medical students who appear for the screening test designed by the Medical Council of India (MCI) are many. Students and medical education activist are of the opinion that the cause for this terrible figure has been the "unusual tough"screening test that was designed to fail more students.

"The regulator, in a bid to help private medical colleges in India, has traditionally kept the pass percentage low in the FMGE, since its inception in 2003," a third-year medical who had filed the RTI query told

The New Indian Express.

"Why doesn't the MCI introduce a similar screening test for graduates from private colleges who get admission despite poor scores in the National Entrance cum Eligibility Entrance Test?" he added.

However, the officials in the regulator upheld that the poor pass percentage of such students is due to the inferior quality of medical education in countries like China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Georgia.