3,239 international students, 1,400 new Indian admissions, 600 living in hotels: the Indian embassy's 31 October 2025 advisory on Samarkand State Medical University

The Embassy of India in Tashkent has become the most active regulator-by-advisory for Indian medical students in Uzbekistan, a country that now hosts a large and growing Indian MBBS population. Its advisory on Samarkand State Medical University, issued on 31 October 2025, shows what happens when a university's intake runs ahead of what it can house and teach, and it is worth reading by anyone considering the country.

According to Careers360, reporting on 19 November 2025, the embassy said SSMU had 3,239 international students on its rolls through the 2024-25 academic year and had then enrolled about 1,400 Indian students in the winter intake, a number that 'far exceeds its capacity'. Careers360 reported the embassy as saying the overcrowding had affected the quality of education and medical outreach, that it had received complaints against Edsmart, a company involved in admitting Indian students to SSMU, and that it had taken up all the issues with the university and was awaiting a response. Medical Dialogues, reporting on 8 November 2025, quoted the same advisory as saying the admissions were 'over and above the capacity that the University can handle', affecting education quality and clinical exposure. Both outlets reported that about 600 Indian students were housed in hotels because there were no proper hostels.

The students' own letter to the embassy and to the National Medical Commission, as summarised by Careers360, went further. They said MD House, the agency that manages admissions and fees, issued no proper receipts and asked for 'undocumented payments' to individuals; that fees were raised suddenly without notice; that teaching ran on irregular schedules with inadequate faculty, no structured classes and no real examinations, with academics relying on PDFs; that accommodation and food were substandard; and that agents and senior students discouraged complaints and pressed them to post fake positive reviews. Medical Dialogues reported that the All FMGs Association asked the NMC for a one-time provision allowing foreign medical graduates to transfer colleges, arguing that universities admit beyond sanctioned capacity, often through Indian agents, then expel some students or issue degrees only up to the approved intake, leaving the rest having paid heavy fees. Neither outlet reported a response from SSMU or the NMC at the time.

The mechanism described in both reports is the commission chain. An agent is paid per head, the university accepts the heads, and capacity, hostels and clinical rotations are left to sort themselves out afterwards. The check that failed was the one a student should make before paying: how many seats the university is sanctioned to fill, and how many it has actually taken.

For a family the practical lesson is to ask the university in writing for its approved international intake and for a fee receipt issued by the university itself, not by an agency. Pay the institution, keep every receipt, and read the Indian embassy's advisories on Uzbekistan before, not after, the deposit. If a university cannot say where its new students will sleep, that is reason enough to pause.