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Thinking global for medical education? Beware!- 24-Aug-2015
Perhaps, becoming a medical practitioner is the most popular aspiration among the meritorious students of India. Popular opinion about the profession and the pay packages are among the reasons for this undying craze for medical education. But it is also hard to get.
Demand for the most-coveted medical seats is on a high as the volume of aspirants is multiple times the available number of seats. Just look at the numbers: for the 3,722 medical seats that were available through the AIPMT counselling, as many as 6,32,625 candidates had applied. Take the case of Tamil Nadu, too, where for the 3,000-odd medical seats available in the state medical colleges, over 50,000 had applied. Medical seats in self-financing colleges are beyond the reach of the aam aadmi.
Wait, the story is not over yet! Theres an economical option for those medical aspirants who do not have huge chunks of money to shell out on studies. Medical seats can be obtained in foreign institutions! There again, the country of choice is critical. In developed nations, the medical institutions charge hefty fees, and hence, they are out of reach for a not-so-wealthy candidate. But there are certain small countries that have understood the market for medical education in countries like India and have built medical institutions that can tap into the Indian market of students.
You might have come across advertisements such as Study medicine with just Rs5 lakh and Passed +2? We can get you a medical seat!. Blindly believing and going for them will not be a healthy decision, but the Medical Council of India (MCI) has laid out certain principles and guidelines to pursue medical courses in foreign institutions. Not all the medical degrees offered in foreign institutions are approved by the MCI. When one returns to India to work after pursuing medical education in a foreign institution, the person has to follow the rules and regulations laid out by the MCI. In short, only those who pass the MCIs Screen Test can work as medical practitioners in India.
This apart, the MCI allows one to take up the Screen Test only if the person has studied in the certified foreign institutions. It has the list of approved colleges on its website.
Moreover, the one-year postgraduate course offered in foreign universities will not fetch you a government job. Hence, it becomes mandatory for students to wisely choose the country and college of study after scrutiny and quality checks, and also check if it is recognised in India before venturing to study abroad.
