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Ten thousand students, three years in limbo: how India's rules and the Philippines' MD degree fell out of step, and the 2025 confirmation that ended it
The Philippines teaches medicine in English on an American model: a bachelor's degree first, then a four-year Doctor of Medicine. For years agents sold the combination to Indian students as "MBBS in the Philippines". In 2021 India's regulator wrote rules the combination did not fit.
According to Outlook, the National Medical Commission's 2021 regulations for foreign graduates required, among other things, a course of at least 54 months followed by a 12-month internship at the same institution, and registration to practise in the country of study. The Philippine MD was shorter, its pre-medical bachelor's degree was not counted, and Filipino law at the time did not let foreign graduates register to practise. Outlook reported the roughly ten thousand Indian students then in Philippine medical schools saying the commission had "betrayed" them, and the uncertainty over whether their degrees would be accepted for the screening examination at home. Medical Dialogues reported the resolution: the Philippine Commission on Higher Education confirmed, in a formal communication to the Indian embassy in Manila, that its Doctor of Medicine programmes align with the NMC's eligibility norms, and that Indian graduates of CHED-accredited Philippine medical schools are eligible for both the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination and the National Exit Test. Earlier reporting by Careers360 had found that more than forty per cent of the foreign colleges Indian candidates attended were unaccredited, and that for as many as ten Philippine colleges researchers could not establish any hospital or institutional ties.
Nobody in this account defrauded anyone. The case is here because ten thousand families paid for a degree whose recognition at home was decided after they enrolled, by two governments, over three years, and because agents sold seats through the entire period as if nothing was in question.
The rule the episode teaches is not about the Philippines. Recognition is a relationship between a foreign programme and your regulator, it can change after you start, and the only protection is to read the regulator's current rules yourself, choose a programme that meets them today, and keep the regulator's written answer.
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This is a news-sourced case summary written by the TrustMBBS team, not a first-person account; see the sources above. They reflect one person's experience and are not a verdict on any institution. Report your own: Report a scam or tell your story.