No permission from NMC to accommodate foreign medical students in Indian medical colleges: Centre in Rajya Sabha

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has not given any permission to transfer or accommodate any foreign medical students, including those who have returned from Ukraine, in any Indian medical institute or university, the centre informed the Rajya Sabha.

According to the Minister of State of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, no permission has been given by the NMC, the regulatory body of medical education in the country, to transfer or accommodate foreign medical students in any Indian medical institute or university.

To another question that state governments have demanded the Centre to permit Ukraine-returned MBBS students to continue their studies in medical colleges of the country, the minister said no such information is available to them.

The Minister of State said foreign medical students are either covered under Screening Test Regulations, 2002 or Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations, 2021, as the case may be. There are no such provisions in the Indian Medical Council Act 1956 and the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, nor the Regulations to accommodate or transfer medical students from foreign medical institutes to Indian medical colleges.

As per information received from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the Indian Embassy in Kyiv has communicated with all the concerned Universities in Ukraine to provide transcripts and other documents in a smooth manner to the students, she said. She said about 20,000 Indian students have returned from Ukraine.