MBBS IN CHINA : ENGLISH MEDIUM OR BILINGUAL MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION?

Every year a large number of students take up Medical admission in China.More than 250 Universities in China, under the Central Government and Provincial Government are offering admissions to International students for Under-graduate and Post-graduate medical programmes in respective Universities. The number of students from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are particularly more when compared to applicants from other countries for Medical education.

However, when Indian students go through MCI website regarding recognized list of institutions in China offering MBBS course, there are two separate lists updated. The list of Universities offering “ENGLISH MEDIUM MBBS IN CHINA” is only 45 in number, whereas the list of Universities offering “MBBS IN CHINA IN BILINGUAL MEDIUM” is more than 200. There begins the confusion for all the applicants! What is the difference between both these types of institutions, how about their recognition, facilities, etc.,

Medical Council of India updates this list every year, after consulting with respective Indian embassy and in reference to the list published by Ministry of Education in China. The list for Bilingual MBBS universities is updated by setting in with standards set by MCI itself. The list is updated every year around the month of April or May for universities providing full English medium course. Since the beginning, the number of eligible universities have decreased and as of now, there is about 45 universities recognized for English medium MBBS course in China; some universities which were previously on the list are now deemed ineligible as the list is updated. Weifang University, Dali University, Jiamusi University, Hebei United University are few examples of Universities that lost its place in the English Medium MBBS list approved by Medical Council of India.

The process of updating is based on yearly evaluation of universities by Ministry of Education (China) since 2013. The ministry prepares a final list of universities meeting the required standards and is forwarded to the Indian Embassy and thereby sent to the Medical Council of India. Along with the name of the University, number of seat allocated for foreign students in respective universities are also mentioned in the MCI website. Interestingly, the number of seats is not listed in the website since 2017.

There are a lot of changes between the Course pattern, duration of course, teaching and other aspects of English medium MBBS and Bi-Lingual Clinical Medicine course; So right now it cannot be considered like earlier that every Medical course done by foreign students in China has a uniform pattern.

We will be back explaining and looking more into the differences between the two courses and what the student will experience or gain by taking up the respective course in coming articles. This article was to convey the fact that every medical course in China is not the same and there is more to consider while choosing a University to pursue Medical education in China. Follow us for more updates…