At a council meeting on 14 September 2026, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council abolished the mandatory MDCAT requirement for Pakistani students seeking admission to foreign medical and dental institutions. For thousands of families this is the most consequential piece of education news of the year — and within days it was being repeated across social media in a form that is not quite true.

So here is the careful version: what was removed, what was not, and what a student should actually do about it.

What has changed

Until this decision, a Pakistani student who wanted to study MBBS in China, Central Asia or anywhere else abroad first had to sit the MDCAT in Pakistan and pass it. If you did not take the test, or did not clear the cut-off, the door to a foreign medical school was closed no matter how good your FSc results were.

That requirement is gone. Admission to a foreign medical institution no longer depends on an MDCAT result.

Who this genuinely helps. A student with strong FSc Pre-Medical marks who missed the MDCAT, sat it and underperformed, or scored too low for a public seat but too high to give up on medicine. Last year that student's options were a private Pakistani college at a price most families cannot meet, or a different career. Now there is a third option.

What has not changed — and this is the important part

Removing MDCAT changed how you get in. It did nothing whatsoever to how you come back. Three requirements survive untouched, and each of them has ended careers for students who found out too late.

1. The National Licensing Examination still applies

To practise medicine in Pakistan with a degree obtained abroad, you must pass the NLE. This has not been removed, reduced or waived, and nothing in the September decision touches it. A foreign medical graduate sits NLE Step 1 and then Step 2, and licensing follows from that.

If anyone tells you that a Chinese MBBS now lets you practise in Pakistan without further examination, they are either badly informed or selling you something. Ask them to put it in writing. They will not.

2. You must register with PMDC before you leave Pakistan

Not when you arrive. Not in your final year. Before departure. Students who skipped this step have faced serious difficulty having their degrees recognised on return, and it is an entirely avoidable problem — it is a form and a process, done at the right time.

3. The university has to be properly recognised

It must appear in the World Directory of Medical Schools and be recognised by PMDC. This is the single most expensive thing to get wrong. A degree from an institution outside those lists may be worth very little when you come home, and you will not discover that until you have spent six years and a great deal of money.

What you still need academically

  • At least 60% in FSc Pre-Medical, with Biology, Physics and Chemistry — or A-Levels in the same subjects
  • Age typically between 17 and 25 at admission, though individual universities set narrower bands
  • A clear medical fitness certificate and a police character certificate
  • IELTS is normally not required for English-medium programmes, since FSc in Pakistan is taught in English

Why China, specifically

China has roughly 45 universities approved by its Ministry of Education to teach MBBS in English, with large and long-established cohorts of Pakistani students. Tuition at government universities is a fraction of what a private medical college in Pakistan costs. The degree structure is familiar: five years of study plus a one-year clinical internship, which many Pakistani students complete at an approved teaching hospital back home.

It is not the only option, and it is not automatically the right one. But for a student whose alternative was abandoning medicine, it is a serious one.

The part nobody puts on a poster

Lectures are in English. Patients are not. From the third year, when clinical rotations begin, students who cannot hold a conversation in Mandarin find themselves standing at the bedside while classmates take histories. Every graduate we have spoken to says the same thing: start the language early, not in the week before you fly.

This is why HS Global runs Chinese language training in Karachi through Language World — so students arrive with HSK foundations rather than beginning from zero in a Chinese classroom.

What to do now, in order

  1. Check your FSc percentage honestly against the 60% requirement.
  2. Decide whether you can commit to six years abroad, including clinical work in a second language.
  3. Shortlist only universities that are in the World Directory of Medical Schools and PMDC-recognised. Ask for this in writing from whoever is advising you.
  4. Begin IBCC and MOFA attestation now. It is the step that makes students miss intakes.
  5. Plan your PMDC registration before departure — not as an afterthought.
  6. Start the language.

Thinking about it seriously?

Our MBBS in China page sets out the eight universities we work with, the documents, the process and the honest cost position. Initial counselling is a paid session — Rs 1,000 online, Rs 5,000 with Director Sir Hanif — because going properly through your marks, budget and intentions is real work, not a brochure handover.

MBBS in China →   Book a Counselling Session

Written 12 October 2026, following the PMDC council decision of 14 September 2026. Admission and licensing rules change; confirm current requirements with PMDC and with your chosen university before acting. HS Global Consultants (Pvt) Ltd is a QEAC-certified education consultancy (No. L462) and does not provide immigration advice.