Pakistan Medical Commission announces admission criteria for foreign students

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) on Sunday announced admission criteria for foreign students seeking admission to medical and dental colleges in Pakistan.

According to an official of PMC, besides Pakistani students, foreign students could also apply for admission in private medical or dental colleges as per category A and B and they have to compete on a national merit for admission into the colleges.

He said that as per policy, each province would setup a quota for foreign students for admission to their public colleges, if they so desire while private colleges might have a fee structure for foreign students different to Pakistani students subject to the two categories, with a lower fee charged for category B as compared to category A.

He added category A was for such student who was a foreign national and did not hold Pakistani nationality and had obtained their HSSC, 12th grade examination or equivalent from outside Pakistan while category B was for such student who was a non-resident Pakistani or non-resident dual national having obtained their HSSC, 12th grade examination or equivalent from outside Pakistan.

He said that a foreign student might apply for preparation of merit to a private college on the basis of having taken the MDCAT result or SAT II results in Biology, Chemistry and Physics or Maths.

The ratio given to each score for calculating cumulative score equivalence to MDCAT will be Biology 40%, Chemistry 30%, Physics or Maths 20%. English is exempted if the student has obtained their HSSC qualification from a program taught primarily in English.

He said that any foreign student falling in either category A or B, might at their option apply using either SAT II results or MDCAT results. This applies to students seeking admission to private or public colleges.

For public colleges, PMC will issue an equivalence formula for SAT II scores for foreign students for use in calculating merit. Any foreign student who elects to come to Pakistan and take the MDCAT on 15th November 2020 will not lose their status as foreign student for purposes of applying for admissions.

As per criteria, any foreign student will after having taken the MDCAT still retain the right to either select their MDCAT score or their SAT II scores at the time of applying for admissions to private college.

Meanwhile, the commission clarified that it has no policy or requirement of graduation ceremonies of foreign and Pakistani colleges or for students attending such ceremonies. It is the entire domain of the college itself to determine how to conduct such ceremonies.