With most students failing to crack the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE), also known as NEXT, medical education experts and parents have urged the authorities concerned to bring down the difficulty of this exercise to a moderate level.
It is mandatory for students who go abroad for medical education and want to practise in India after returning with their degrees to sit and clear NEXT. However, every year, many students falter and eventually face a bleak future.
According to External Affairs Statistics, medical admission in India is determined by the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). Students who score low marks in this exam and do not get admission into MBBS courses in India, decide to study abroad. They go to Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, China, Romania, the Philippines, and Georgia to pursue a medical degree equivalent to MBBS.
The Medical Council of India (MCI) rules state that direct service in India after returning from abroad with a degree is not allowed. However, because of the difficulty level of the exam to qualify and get registered to be a practitioner, it is becoming a perennial barrier for most of these students.
The percentage of results of this examination has been consistently low. This year’s results declared on July 16 recorded a pass percentage of 20.89. Out of the 34,608 students who appeared, only 7,233 cleared it, and the fate of the remaining 27, 375 hangs in the balance. The National Board of Examination conducts NEXT twice a year.
Speaking to Pune Times Mirror, career counsellor Durgesh Mangeshkar said, “The central government has increased the difficulty level of the qualifying examination. It was necessary. Medical care is a very important subject. There should be no room for laxity in it. While considering medical education abroad, parents must consider the percentage of its results. Because there is a fear that students’ lives will be at stake.”
However, parents and experts feel that in this way most of the students who fail to clear NEXT will remain just 12th-pass in their academic career. Therefore, they call for an overhaul in the examination process and bring its difficulty to a moderate level. Also, they suggest that students simultaneously study for NEXT as they pursue their courses in foreign countries.
Harish Butale, a higher education counsellor, told Mirror: “I will suggest to all parents and the students who wish to take admission to foreign medical colleges that they prepare for the FMGE syllabus along with their studies.
“Unfortunately, Indian medical education is based on theoretical orientation. Hence, foreign medical university students find it difficult to crack this eligibility test. Some students spend six to eight years in this process.”
It is estimated that 20,000-25,000 Indian students go abroad to study medicine each year. Education loans are one of the finest ways to fund one’s higher education in the field of medicine because many banks offer a moratorium period, low documentation, and a simple application process that can be completed online. Due to these long-term, low-interest loan options offered by the banks, non-banking, and micro-finance sectors, there is an increase in Indian students going abroad for medical education.
Ten years & six tries
Students who have done MBBS from abroad get an opportunity to qualify to practise in India through the Service Eligibility Test (NEXT) about six times. They get ten years to do so.
Pass percentage in the past
June 2021: 23.53
December 2021: 24.26
December 2022: 32.21
June 2023: 10.20
What is FMGE?
Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE), also called NEXT, is an eligibility test for students who get their medical degrees from abroad and want to register as practising doctors in India. According to the Medical Council of India rules, they need to clear this exam to get the required registration number to be a medical practitioner. The latest FMGE results show that out of the 34,608 students who appeared, only 7,233 cleared it.