MBBS Abroad Glossary: NMC, FMGL, FMGE, NExT & WDOMS

The acronyms and terms in foreign medical education, explained in one or two sentences each.

A B C E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U W

Academic mobility programme: A one-time NMC scheme that let Indian students displaced by the war in Ukraine complete their course at a university in another country, with the degree awarded by the new university. NMC's November 2023 notice extended it as a one-time measure; it is not a general right to transfer. Read more →
AMC: The Australian Medical Council, which assesses international medical graduates for practice in Australia. Its standard pathway uses the AMC CAT MCQ exam followed by a clinical exam or workplace-based assessment, and it relies on the ECFMG sponsor note in WDOMS to judge schools. Read more →
Apostille: A certificate that authenticates a public document for use in countries that belong to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention, which India joined in 2005. In India the Ministry of External Affairs apostilles educational documents after authentication at a regional centre; MEA charges ₹50 per sticker plus an outsourced agency fee. Read more →
BMDC: The Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council, which registers doctors in Bangladesh. Under section 12 of the BMDC Act 2010, a foreign medical degree must be recognised by BMDC; graduates of universities not on the Act's schedule sit a council exam and complete an internship. Read more →
BS (pre-medical course): In the Philippines, a bachelor's degree such as BS Biology taken before the 4-year MD. NMC's November 2023 notice says it de-recognised the Philippine BS course from 18 November 2021, so pre-medical years do not count towards FMGL 2021's 54-month minimum. Read more →
Clinical clerkship (India): Extra supervised clinical training NMC requires of some foreign graduates before CRMI. Under NMC's November 2023 notice, graduates whose final or penultimate years were online because of COVID-19 or the Ukraine war must do one or two years of clerkship, for which colleges may charge up to ₹5,000 a month. Read more →
CRMI: Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship, the 12-month supervised internship in an Indian medical college that a foreign medical graduate must complete after passing FMGE and getting provisional registration. It comes on top of the 12-month internship done abroad. For 2026-27 NMC listed 43,250 CRMI slots for FMGs across 797 institutions. Read more →
ECFMG: The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, part of Intealth, which certifies international medical graduates for US residency. USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK require a school listed in WDOMS as meeting ECFMG eligibility requirements, and Step 3 requires ECFMG Certification. Read more →
Eligibility Certificate (EC): A certificate from the erstwhile MCI or NMC confirming that an Indian student was eligible to join a foreign medical course, introduced by the Eligibility Requirement Regulations, 2002. For students joining with a qualifying NEET-UG result, the NEET result is deemed the eligibility certificate; separate ECs are now mostly for older cases. Read more →
FMG (Foreign Medical Graduate): Under FMGL 2021, a person who does not have a primary medical qualification from a university or medical college in India and seeks a licence to practise medicine in India. Indian citizens and OCIs with a foreign MBBS or MD are FMGs. Read more →
FMGE: The Foreign Medical Graduate Examination, the screening test that Indian and OCI graduates of foreign medical schools must pass before registration in India. NBEMS conducts it as 300 English multiple-choice questions in two parts, with a pass mark of 150 and no negative marking. As of November 2026 NBEMS holds it three times a year. Read more →
FMGE Performance Report: NBEMS's annual report of FMGE results broken down by country and by foreign university. The 2025 report shows, for example, 16,973 of 78,905 candidates passing across both sessions (21.5%). Its institute-wise tables are the best public evidence of how a specific university's graduates perform. Read more →
FMGL Regulations, 2021: The National Medical Commission (Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate) Regulations, 2021, notified on 18 November 2021. They require at least 54 months of study, a 12-month internship in the same foreign institution, English as the medium of instruction, a licence to practise in the awarding country on par with its citizens, completion within 10 years, then a 12-month internship and licensing exam in India. Read more →
GMC: The General Medical Council, the UK's medical regulator. It decides which overseas primary medical qualifications are acceptable for the PLAB route and registers doctors to practise in the UK. Read more →
GME Regulations, 1997: NMC's Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 1997, which set the admission criteria for MBBS in India: minimum age of 17 and Class 12 with Physics, Chemistry, Biology and English at the required marks. Students going abroad must also meet these criteria, and NBEMS checks them at FMGE. Read more →
Housemanship / house job: The supervised year of practice that new doctors complete after qualifying in countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria and Ghana before full registration. It is the local equivalent of India's 12-month CRMI internship. Read more →
HSK: Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, China's standardised Chinese-language proficiency test. India's consulate in Guangzhou says Indian MBBS students in China must reach HSK-4 for clinical work, and those who do not clear it will not be awarded the degree. Read more →
Intealth: The US non-profit that brings together ECFMG and FAIMER. FAIMER helps run WDOMS, and ECFMG certifies international medical graduates for US training. Kenya's KMPDC asks for ECFMG verification of foreign degrees, and Nigeria's MDCN uses its EPIC verification. Read more →
Invitation letter: An official letter issued by a university or a ministry in countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan that a foreign student needs before applying for a student visa. It usually takes several weeks after admission, so late NEET results can push students past the September start. Read more →
KMPDC and IQE: The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council regulates doctors in Kenya. Foreign-trained graduates complete a four-month clinical attachment and pass its Internship Qualifying Examination (IQE) before internship and registration; the minimum entry grade for medicine is a KCSE mean of C+. Read more →
LRS: The Reserve Bank of India's Liberalised Remittance Scheme, which lets a resident individual remit up to US$250,000 per financial year (April to March) for permitted purposes, including studies abroad. Tuition and living money for MBBS abroad are sent under LRS. Read more →
MBBS: Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, the primary medical degree in India and many Commonwealth countries. Abroad, the equivalent degree may be called General Medicine, Medical Doctor (MD) or Doctor of Medicine. For Indian students what matters is not the title but whether the course meets NMC's FMGL 2021 rules. Read more →
MCI (Medical Council of India): The former national medical regulator of India, replaced by the National Medical Commission under the NMC Act, 2019. Older rules for foreign medical graduates, such as the Screening Test Regulations and Eligibility Certificate Regulations of 2002, were issued by the MCI and are referred to as 'erstwhile MCI' regulations. Read more →
MD (abroad): In Russia, Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Philippines, the primary medical degree is often titled MD or Medical Doctor. Unlike an MD in India, it is not a postgraduate specialisation: it is the undergraduate degree that FMGL 2021 compares with Indian MBBS. Read more →
MDC (Ghana): The Medical and Dental Council of Ghana, which registers doctors under Act 857 of 2013. Foreign-trained doctors sit its two-stage registration examination and pay for foreign verification; the council says a common licensing exam for local and foreign graduates applies from February 2026. Read more →
MDCN: The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria. Foreign-trained doctors must pass its assessment examination, open only to graduates of WDOMS-listed schools with a verified degree and proof of eligibility to practise in the training country, then complete housemanship. Read more →
MEC (Nepal): Nepal's Medical Education Commission, which sets medical college fees and seats, runs the common entrance exam and issues the eligibility letter Nepali students need before studying medicine abroad. The letter costs NPR 3,000 for a bachelor's programme. Read more →
Medium of instruction: The language a course is taught in. FMGL 2021 requires the foreign medical degree to be taught in English, but patients abroad speak the local language, so most universities also teach it for clinical work. China, for example, requires HSK-4 Chinese for the degree. Read more →
MoE list (China): The list published by China's Ministry of Education of universities allowed to teach clinical medicine (MBBS) to international students in English, with 45 universities on the 2019 list. India's consulate in Guangzhou says only these may admit foreigners to English-medium clinical medicine. Read more →
NBEMS: The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences, New Delhi, which conducts FMGE and publishes its information bulletins, results and annual country-wise and institute-wise performance reports. NBEMS runs the test; eligibility rules come from NMC. Read more →
NEET-UG: The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), India's entrance exam for medical courses, conducted by the National Testing Agency. Indian citizens and OCIs who want to study medicine abroad and practise in India must qualify it; the result is valid for three years from its declaration. Read more →
Nepal Medical Council (NMC Nepal): Nepal's medical regulator. Every doctor, trained in Nepal or abroad, must pass its licensing examination before registration. Not to be confused with India's National Medical Commission, which shares the abbreviation NMC. Read more →
NExT (National Exit Test): A licensing exam created by the NMC Act, 2019 to replace FMGE and the final-year MBBS exam, and to be used for postgraduate admission. NMC notified NExT regulations in June 2023 but deferred the exam by a public notice of 13 July 2023; as of November 2026 it has no confirmed start date and FMGE remains the licensing exam for foreign graduates. Read more →
NMAT: The National Medical Admission Test, which anyone intending to enrol in a medical degree programme in the Philippines must take, administered through the Center for Educational Measurement. Results go to medical schools and CHED, and the test must be taken no more than two years before admission. Read more →
NMC (National Medical Commission): India's medical education and licensing regulator, constituted under the National Medical Commission Act, 2019. It replaced the Medical Council of India and sets the rules foreign medical graduates must meet, including the FMGL Regulations, 2021. NMC says it does not endorse any list of foreign medical universities. Read more →
NTA (National Testing Agency): The Government of India agency that conducts NEET-UG, publishes its information bulletin and results, and sets the qualifying cut-off marks each year. Check NTA's official notices for exam dates rather than relying on agents or social media. Read more →
OCI (Overseas Citizen of India): A status for foreign citizens of Indian origin. For medical study abroad, NMC applies the same rules to OCIs as to Indian citizens: they must qualify NEET-UG and pass the screening test before registration in India. Read more →
Offshore campus: A campus or centre outside the awarding university's home country, sometimes in India, that teaches part of a foreign medical course. FMGL 2021 bars any part of the training in India, and NMC's April 2026 Uzbekistan advisory flagged an offshore campus in Bangalore linked to a Uzbek university. Read more →
PCB: Physics, Chemistry and Biology, the Class 12 subjects whose aggregate marks decide MBBS eligibility. Indian rules require at least 50% in PCB for General candidates, 40% for SC, ST and OBC, and 45% for PwBD, plus a pass in English. Read more →
Permanent registration: Full registration with a State Medical Council that licenses a doctor to practise modern medicine independently in India. A foreign medical graduate gets it only after meeting FMGL 2021, passing FMGE (or NExT) and completing the 12-month internship in India. Read more →
PLAB: The Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board test, the UK General Medical Council's main route for international medical graduates. It starts with having a primary medical qualification from a WDOMS-listed institution that the GMC currently accepts. Read more →
PMDC and NRE: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council regulates doctors in Pakistan. Pakistani graduates of foreign medical schools must pass its two-step National Registration Examination (NRE) and a one-year house job; a July 2026 PMDC notice says only graduates of ECFMG-recognised foreign institutions may sit the NRE. Read more →
Provisional registration: Temporary registration from a State Medical Council that allows a foreign medical graduate who has passed FMGE to start the 12-month CRMI internship in India. It is not a licence for independent practice. Read more →
Qualifying percentile: The NEET-UG threshold you must reach to 'qualify': the 50th percentile for General candidates, the 40th for SC, ST and OBC candidates and the 45th for General-PwBD. For study abroad you need only to qualify, not a particular rank; the equivalent marks change every year. Read more →
Recognized Accreditation Policy: An ECFMG policy introduced in 2010 on medical school accreditation by agencies recognised by bodies such as WFME. WFME's page on the policy says Intealth now reports which schools meet it 'for informational purposes only' and that it does not affect an individual's eligibility for ECFMG Certification. Read more →
SLMC and ERPM: The Sri Lanka Medical Council recognises individual foreign degree programmes and registers doctors. Foreign graduates must pass its Examination for Registration to Practise Medicine (ERPM), which since 2025 has two parts with a 50% pass mark each, before internship. Read more →
State Medical Council (SMC): The state-level body that registers doctors in India. Foreign medical graduates apply to their State Medical Council for provisional registration and internship allotment after FMGE, and for permanent registration after the internship. Read more →
TCS: Tax collected at source: tax that Indian banks collect on certain foreign remittances under LRS. Whether it applies to an education remittance, and at what rate, depends on the amount, the current Finance Act and whether an education loan funds the payment, so ask your bank before transferring fees. Read more →
USMLE: The United States Medical Licensing Examination, a series of Steps required for a medical licence in the US. International graduates can sit Step 1 and Step 2 CK only if their school is listed in WDOMS as meeting ECFMG eligibility requirements; Step 3 also needs ECFMG Certification. Read more →
WDOMS: The World Directory of Medical Schools, run by WFME and FAIMER, listing over 3,700 operational and historical medical schools. A listing confirms a school exists and is recognised by a government agency, but does not denote accreditation or endorsement. USMLE, AMC and other regulators use its sponsor notes. Read more →
WFME: The World Federation for Medical Education, which recognises national accrediting agencies, not individual medical schools. As of November 2026 its list shows agencies with recognition status for India (NMC), Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, the Philippines and China, while agencies for Nepal and Bangladesh were still applying. Read more →

MBBS abroad glossary

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