Students pursuing medical, dental studies abroad no longer required to pass MDCAT

The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has announced that Pakistani students pursuing medical or dental studies abroad will no longer be required to pass the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT), according to a notice shared on X on Monday. The decision was made at a meeting held on September 14. The PMDC did not provide details on the reasons behind this change.

Dr. Rizwan Taj, the PMDC President, informed Dawn that a parliamentary committee had recommended against compulsory MDCAT completion for students planning to study abroad. The Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services, during its meeting on September 15, discussed the issue and called for stricter regulation of substandard foreign medical institutions, along with a public disclosure of institutions failing to meet standards.

In June, the Sub-Committee of the Senate Standing Committee had also reviewed the PMDC's advertisement, which made MDCAT mandatory for students seeking admission to MBBS programmes abroad. Committee members questioned the policy's legality and its effectiveness in preventing admission to substandard colleges. They argued that imposing MDCAT as a criterion for foreign institutions required further deliberation, suggesting that the PMDC should publish a list of non-standard foreign medical colleges instead.

With the PMDC's decision to remove this requirement, any student transferring to a university in Pakistan while studying abroad will need to clear the National Examination Board (NEB) assessment. Additionally, foreign medical graduates aiming to practice in Pakistan will be required to pass the registration exam for foreign medical graduates, which is conducted by the NEB twice a year to evaluate the knowledge, clinical skills, and professional competence of students with partial international medical education.