Kozhikode: Students who have sought admission for MBBS course in foreign medical universities, without referring to the guidelines issued by the National Medical Commission, are experiencing difficulties. As per the rules issued by the National Medical Commission on 18 November 2021, those who study medical courses in certain countries cannot practice medicine in India. As the list of the countries wasn’t published, the authorities had warned that the aspirants should contact the commission or the Indian embassies and consulates in the respective countries to ensure that the universities where they wish to pursue medical courses have the approval.

As per the renewed guidelines, the medical course in foreign universities should have a duration of over 54 months, the medium of instruction should be English, the students should complete a 12-month-long internship at the same institution where they have studied and the students should acquire a license to practice medicine in the country where they had studied.

However, in some countries like Philippines, the MD degree which is equivalent to MBBS is just 48 months long. Besides, Indian students wouldn’t get a license to practice medicine there. Meanwhile, some other countries would grant the license only after completing post-graduation too. The future of hundreds of students who joined the pre-medical course in 2019 – 2020 has now been jeopardized with the publication of the latest rules.

Meanwhile, NMC has allowed relaxation for the students who have joined MBBS courses before the notification was published. However, relaxation wouldn’t be applicable to those who joined for the BS, which is a pre-medical course. Around Rs 10 lakh has to be paid as fee for four semesters of BS.