Looking at uncertain future, Indian medical students in Philippines say 'NMC betrayed us'

Indian medical students studying in Philippines feel that National Medical Commission has betrayed them by backing out from its verbal promise of not derecognizing the bridge course offered by Philippine colleges.

Many Indian medical students who are studying medical courses from abroad are facing an uncertain future, be it the students studying in China, Ukraine and now the Philippines. The Indian medical students studying in the Philippines colleges are alleging that the National Medical Commission (NMC) has backed out of its verbal promise of not derecognizing the bridge course offered by Philippines colleges and its counsel took a contrary stand in the Delhi high court. Over 10,000 Indian students are affected by it.

As per these students, NMC had met a delegation of students pursuing medical courses from Philippines on March 8 before the court hearing on March 16 and promised them to take action that would be in favour of the students but the court hearing proved otherwise.

NMC invalidated their one to two years of pre-medicine studies

As per NMC's Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations 2021, dated November 18, 2021, it has invalidated their one to two years of pre-medicine studies that they have been pursuing in Philippines.

On March 8, hundreds of students had protested outside the NMC building in the Dwarka area of Delhi against this invalidation of their course. Reportedly, NMC had called the local police to get them removed from there. When the students refused to leave the site, the police asked them to form a delegation and meet the NMC office bearers, as reported by Outlook India.

“We had constituted a team and met Aruna V Vanikar, who is the President of Undergraduate Medical Education Board and Dr Pulkesh Kumar, secretary of NMC. They had promised us in front of the SHO and our team that they would resolve the matter and give us relief very soon," said Muskan Gaba, a student, who was part of the delegation.

However, on March 16, in Delhi High Court the NMC's lawyer told the court it would not withdraw the regulation and stood by it.

"This is a betrayal of our trust. We wouldn’t have left the site and continued our protest, had they not promised to give us relief," Gaba said. 

Read more:

• Future Of Indian Medical Students Studying In Philippines Uncertain
• Indian students studying MBBS from China universities protest in Kerala
• Rajasthan HC issues notice on plea challenging MCI condition on Foreign Medical Students