THE National Medical Commission (NMC) said it does not recognise or approve medical courses done only by online mode, in a latest notice in connection with MBBS admissions in Chinese universities. The External Affairs Ministry has noticed that some universities in China have started issuing notices for MBBS admission for the current and upcoming academic years, NMC Secretary Dr Sandhya Bhullar said in an official notice, noting that any prospective student needs to be aware that China’s Government has imposed strict travel restrictions in the wake of COVID-19 and suspended all visas since November 2020. “A large number of international students, including Indian students, have not been able to return to China to continue their studies due to these restrictions. Thus far, there has been no relaxation in the restrictions,” it said. Further, the Chinese authorities have conveyed earlier that courses will be conducted online.

 

As per the rules, the NMC does not recognise or approve medical courses done only by online mode. The notice has advised students to refer to FMGE Regulations before applying or planning to seek admission in any institutions in Chinese/foreign institutions. This decision of NMC was announced after the Delhi High Court sought response from the Centre and the NMC on a petition to allow over 140 medical students studying in China to undertake practical training in India as they have not been able to return to their university due to travel restrictions. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice to the Ministry of Law & Justice, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Health as well as the Commission on the petition which also seeks recognition of their online classes while asking the respondents authorities to look into the issue as the petitioners are “students not terrorists.”

 

The 147 petitioners who are students of medicine in the Ningbo University in China informed the court that they had returned to India in early 2020 but have not been able to go back since then as China is not issuing student visas. They asserted that while China has no plan of taking Indian students back at least till September, the Indian authorities have notified certain regulations mandating Indian students studying in foreign universities to undertake the entire course, training and internship/clerkship from their own foreign medical institution. Their plea states that in terms of the regulations issued in November last year, no part of their medical training and internship is permitted to be done in India or from any country other than the country from where the primary medical qualification is obtained. The petitioners have contended that on account of these conditions which have been imposed during an unprecedented pandemic, their future is at stake as they are “neither being allowed to attain physical training/ internships/clerkships in India by the NMC nor any clarifications is being provided by the authorities regarding the approval to the online theory classes attended by them”.