India May Consider Holding Foreign Medical Graduates Examination Three Times a Year

TT, August 26, 2026, New Delhi: The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) has said it will not dilute the qualifying standards of the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE), a mandatory screening test for Indian citizens who obtain medical degrees from medical colleges outside the country and wish to practise medicine in India.

The statement comes amid continuing protests by foreign medical graduates over the June 2026 FMGE. Candidates had alleged that the paper was unusually difficult, that video-based questions were introduced without adequate advance notice and that there were issues with examination-centre conditions.

A three-member expert panel constituted by the NBEMS under the chairmanship of Air Marshal (Dr) Pawan Kapoor (Retd) to review candidate grievances and examine issues related to the June examination has recommended examining the feasibility of conducting the FMGE three times a year. The examination is currently held twice a year.

The panel has also recommended reviewing the examination fee, improving examination-centre infrastructure and allowing candidates access to their recorded responses, subject to technical and legal safeguards.

The panel, however, did not recommend grace or compensatory marks for the June examination, finding no material evidence that the video-based questions or the overall difficulty of the paper had affected the outcome.

The expert panel has proposed a more balanced question-paper structure, with 30 per cent low-difficulty, 50 per cent moderate-difficulty and 20 per cent high-difficulty questions. It has also recommended that the mean difficulty level should not exceed 5.5 on a median scale of 1 to 10.

An NBEMS official said the board was willing to address genuine concerns of foreign medical graduates, but there could be no compromise on the minimum competency required to practise medicine in India.

“The attempt-wise results provide a significant context to the debate. In June 2026, 35.74% of first-time candidates cleared FMGE, compared with 21.45% among second-time candidates and just 3.29% among those appearing after more than five attempts. In December 2025, the first-time pass rate was even higher at 47.53%, while it fell to 5.58% among candidates with more than five attempts,” the official said.

Candidates had pointed out that only 12.38 per cent of the 37,448 candidates who appeared for the June examination cleared the test. NBEMS officials, however, said the attempt-wise figures showed why the overall pass percentage alone could not be used to conclude that an entire examination cohort had been subjected to an unfair paper.

“The issue is to ensure a fair and transparent examination while retaining the competency threshold necessary for patient safety,” the official said, adding that the NBEMS remained open to legitimate concerns raised by candidates.

At the same time, sections of the student community have raised questions over the role of overseas medical consultancies and coaching interests in the agitation, arguing that commercial players could have a vested interest in retaining prospective students within the overseas medical education pipeline.

Officials said the central issue was that the FMGE was a screening examination for medical graduates trained outside India, rather than a competitive entrance test.

“The minimum qualifying standard exists because doctors must be competent to handle potentially life-threatening situations such as myocardial infarction, stroke, sepsis, complicated pregnancy and paediatric emergencies,” the official said.