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One in five passes, an admission bribe of $16,000, and an embassy advisory: what the Indian embassy in Dushanbe wants students to know before choosing Tajikistan
Tajikistan is one of the newest Central Asian destinations sold to Indian medical aspirants, and one of the few where the Indian embassy has put its assessment in writing.
According to the Embassy of India in Dushanbe, whose student page and advisories from 2024 set out the position, former students reported two recurring problems: limited English proficiency among some local teachers, and insufficient practical and clinical experience, particularly contact with patients. The embassy's advisory notes the screening-test record: of 3,003 graduates of Tajik medical institutions who sat India's Foreign Medical Graduate Examination between 2023 and 2025, 649 passed, a rate of about 21.6 per cent. It also warns that consultants promote universities beyond the Avicenna Tajik State Medical University, including institutions in Kulob, for which no published fee schedule, admission procedure or statement of English-medium teaching exists from official sources, and advises students to treat such claims as marketing until the institution confirms them. Eurasianet reported an earlier corruption case in which a deputy rector of the Tajik State Medical University was investigated on suspicion of soliciting a $16,000 payment to enrol an Indian student who had failed the entrance examination; the accused is entitled to the presumption of innocence.
The advisory exists because the sales pitch does not mention any of it. Fees are low, the country is quiet, admission is quick, and the World Directory lists the university. All true, and all beside the point if the graduate cannot pass the exam that lets a doctor practise in India.
Before paying an agent for Tajikistan, read the embassy's advisory in full; ask the university for its FMGE results by year and for the language of instruction in clinical years, in writing; and ask which university, exactly, the seat is at. If the name is not Avicenna and the agent cannot produce official documents for it, the embassy has already told you what that means.
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