Although it has been a widespread fact that MBBS in Russia is quite in demand since the time it was a part of the Soviet Union but there are certain rules and regulations which need to be followed by the medical aspirants when they are planning to pursue the course of MBBS in Abroad.
According to the new gazette or guidelines that have been issued by the National Medical Commission of India, any medical aspirant who fails to follow the new rules will not be allowed to appear for the NEXT exam which will be conducted from the year 2023. Earlier the foreign medical graduates had to appear for FMGE but now it has been replaced by the NEXT exam.
First and the most important guideline, according to the NMC IS that whichever country, the medical aspirants have finalised for pursuing their MBBS from, the duration of the course should be of minimum 4.5 years or 54 months. In case if the duration is less than as per mentioned by the NMC guidelines, then your degree will not be considered as valid.
So, all the aspirants are advised to choose the country and the university appropriately and accordingly keeping in mind the duration of the course as per NMC guidelines.
The second most important guideline is that whichever country you choose to pursue your MBBS from, it is mandatory to complete your internship from the same country as per NMC'S new guidelines. The course duration of MBBS in Russia also includes internship program. So, all the aspirants pursuing MBBS from Russia do not have to worry about thus guideline as Russia has already been following this from the time it has started providing medical education to all its international medical aspirants.
Apart from Russia, if we consider countries like Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, these countries have also increased their duration of course from 5 years to 6 years including the internship.
This is another most important guideline which has been introduced by the NMC and it should be strictly followed.
All the medical aspirants planning to pursue MBBS from countries where English is not spoken, their medical degree will not be considered as valid. Hence, it is important for all the medical aspirants to pursue MBBS from universities that provides the course of MBBS in English medium.
There are some universities in Russia wherein the course of MBBS is provided in the Russian language and some medical aspirants are even pursuing their MBBS course from these universities as the fees structure is extremely low as compared to Russian medical universities which provide the course of MBBS in English.
Medical aspirants do not realize that in order to pay less fees they pursue the course of MBBS from such universities but after the completion of the degree when they will have to apply for the medical licensing examination, their degree will be rejected by the NMC and other organisations from all around the world.
In this case, they have not only wasted their money but also their precious time and efforts. Aspirants should not forget that money spent can be earned but the time and efforts invested will not be recovered.
There have been many instances where medical aspirants have been duped by some agents who in order to acquire huge profits from the aspirants have admitted them to the universities which provide the course of MBBS in Russian language.
By saying that the university provides the entire course of MBBS in English but once after the aspirants join the university then they realized that they have been falsely trapped.
Another most important guideline issued by the NMC is for all those medical aspirants who have been changing their universities without any prior notice issued by the Medical Council of India.
According to this new gazette issued by the NMC, all the aspirants planning to pursue MBBS who have taken admission after 18 November, 2021, should complete their course of MBBS from the same university.
For example, if any medical aspirant has taken admission in a bilingual medical university and after one year, the student is planning to take transfer in an English medium university, then your degree will not be considered to be valid.
As per the new law after 18th November 2021 the case of transfer will not be accepted. It is mandatory for all the Indian medical aspirants to complete their course of MBBS from one University only which has to be English medium.
This is also the most important guideline which has been issued by the NMC. It is mandatory for all the medical aspirants who are pursuing MBBS from Abroad universities to acquire a medical license from the same country they have completed their medical course from.
For example, if medical aspirants have taken admission in the Russian medical universities, they will have to appear for the medical licensing examination of the country and also qualify it after the completion of the MBBS course.
After acquiring the degree of that country, then only the foreign medical graduates MBBS degree will be considered as valid.
This is an add on advantage to all the medical doctors pursuing MBBS from Russia in case in future if they want to practise in Russia.
After completing the course of MBBS, it is mandatory for all the Indian medical aspirants to do one year Internship in India as well.
Although the duration of your MBBS course in Russia includes one year of your internship.
The Indian medical aspirants will have to do this mandatory internship in India only after clearing the NEXT exam.
Another advantage about the NEXT exam for all the medical graduates is that if they have performed well on the NEXT exam then they will get a change to pursue their Postgraduation in any specialization from the best medical universities in India.
All the medical aspirants planning to pursue MBBS from Russia, or MBBS from Abroad should keep in mind all these rules and regulations while planning to shortlist a particular medical university for pursuing their course of medical in in international country since after the year 2021, there has been several changes in the rules and regulations issued by the National Medical Commission of India.
All the medical aspirants while exploring any foreign medical university should acquire complete information before taking admission into a foreign medical university as after taking admission the damage has already been done and it will be a difficult task to control it as things start falling apart.
Medical aspirants should realize that these rules and regulations issued by the NMC is for their own good as it provides so many advantages to the Indian medical aspirants planning to pursue the course of MBBS from Russia or MBBS from Abroad.