PMDC has abolished the mandatory MDCAT for admission to foreign medical and dental institutions. Until this decision, a Pakistani student who wanted to study MBBS abroad had to sit and pass MDCAT first, exactly as if they were applying in Pakistan. That requirement is gone. It is the single biggest change to overseas medical study for Pakistani families in years.
Read this part before you read anything else
Dropping MDCAT changes how you get in. It changes nothing about how you come back. Three requirements are untouched, and every one of them is the sort of thing a student discovers too late:
1. You must register with PMDC before you leave Pakistan. Not after you arrive, not in your final year. Students who skip this step have had enormous difficulty getting their degree recognised later.
2. The National Licensing Examination still applies. To practise medicine in Pakistan with a foreign degree you must pass the NLE. It has not been removed, reduced or waived. Anyone who tells you a Chinese MBBS lets you practise in Pakistan without further examination is either uninformed or selling you something.
3. The university must be properly recognised. It must appear in the World Directory of Medical Schools and be recognised by PMDC. A degree from a university outside those lists may be worth very little when you come home.
We put this at the top of the page rather than in the small print at the bottom, because a student who spends six years and tens of lakhs and then cannot register has not had a bad experience — they have lost their career. If a consultancy shows you a fee table before it shows you this, ask why.
Who this suits — and who it does not
China is the right answer for a specific student, not for everyone. Be honest with yourself about which one you are.
A good fit if:
- You have strong FSc Pre-Medical marks but no MDCAT, or an MDCAT score that will not win a public seat
- A Pakistani private medical college is beyond the family budget — Chinese government universities typically cost a fraction of it
- You are prepared for six years away, including clinical work in a second language
- You intend to return to Pakistan and sit the NLE, or to pursue USMLE or PLAB afterwards
Think carefully if:
- You want a quick or guaranteed route to practising medicine — there is no such thing, in any country
- You are not willing to learn Chinese. Lectures are in English; patients are not.
- You have been told by anyone that the NLE can be avoided
The universities we work with
These are the eight Chinese universities HS Global can place students into. All are government institutions with established international MBBS programmes and Pakistani students already enrolled.
Jiamusi University
- City
- Jiamusi
- Province
- Heilongjiang
- Founded
- 1947
- Programme
- MBBS, 5+1 yrs
Jinggangshan University
- City
- Ji'an
- Province
- Jiangxi
- Founded
- 1958
- Programme
- MBBS, 5+1 yrs
Shandong Medical & Pharmaceutical University
- City
- Yantai
- Province
- Shandong
- Founded
- 1946
- Programme
- Clinical Medicine
Jining Medical University
- City
- Jining
- Province
- Shandong
- Founded
- 1952
- Programme
- MBBS, 5+1 yrs
Jilin University
- City
- Changchun
- Province
- Jilin
- Founded
- 1946
- Note
- Highest ranked
Harbin Medical University
- City
- Harbin
- Province
- Heilongjiang
- Founded
- 1926
- Note
- Top-ranked medical
University of South China
- City
- Hengyang
- Province
- Hunan
- Founded
- 1958
- Programme
- Clinical Medicine
Panzhihua University
- City
- Panzhihua
- Province
- Sichuan
- Founded
- 1983
- Note
- Age limit applies
Recognition status and enrolment capacity are confirmed in writing for your chosen university before you pay any application fee.
What it costs
Tuition for English-medium MBBS in China generally falls between roughly RMB 10,000 and RMB 36,000 per year, with accommodation usually another RMB 3,000 to 9,000. The spread is wide because a provincial university and a national-ranked one are genuinely different propositions.
We deliberately do not publish a fee table on this page. Figures move each intake, they differ by university, and a number on a website that turns out to be wrong at the moment of payment is worse than no number at all. You will get the exact, current fees for your chosen university in writing before you commit to anything. If another consultancy's advertised figure is lower than ours, bring it to us and we will tell you honestly whether it is real.
Eligibility
- FSc Pre-Medical — minimum 60% marks, with Biology, Physics and Chemistry. A-Levels with the same science subjects are accepted.
- Age — generally 17 to 25 at admission. Some universities, such as Panzhihua, apply a narrower band.
- MDCAT — no longer required, following the PMDC decision of 14 September 2026.
- IELTS — normally not required, as FSc in Pakistan is taught in English.
- Medical fitness — a clear physical examination report, and a police character certificate.
Documents you will need
Attestation is where Pakistani applications are lost. Every academic document needs IBCC and then MOFA attestation, and that sequence takes weeks — start it before you have an offer, not after.
How the application works
Counselling and honest assessment
We look at your FSc marks, your budget and your intentions after graduation, and tell you whether China is actually the right destination for you. Sometimes the answer is no.
University shortlist
We match you to universities you will realistically be admitted to, and confirm each one's recognition status and next available intake in writing.
Attestation and documents
IBCC, then MOFA. We run this alongside the application rather than after it, because it is the step that makes students miss intakes.
Application and admission letter
Submission, university application fee, and then the admission letter together with the JW202 form, which is what the visa is built on.
PMDC registration
Completed before departure. We do not treat this as optional and neither should you.
X1 student visa and departure
Visa application at the Chinese mission, medical examination, travel and arrival briefing — including what to do in your first week on campus.
Learn Chinese before you go — Language World
Your lectures will be in English. Your patients will not be. From the third year, when clinical rotations begin, students who cannot hold a conversation in Mandarin find themselves standing silently at the bedside while classmates take histories.
HS Global's Language World runs Chinese language training in Karachi, so you arrive with HSK foundations rather than starting from nothing in a Chinese classroom. It is also useful well beyond the degree: Chinese is an increasingly valuable second language for Pakistani professionals, with CPEC-related work across the country.
When is the next intake?
The main intake for English-medium MBBS in China is September. A small number of universities run a spring intake, and availability changes from year to year.
We are not going to print a single intake date across every university on this page, because the honest answer is that it depends which university you choose — and a student who gives up a Pakistani admission cycle on the strength of an advertised date that turns out not to exist has been badly let down. Tell us which universities interest you and we will confirm the next available intake for each, in writing.
Talk to a counsellor about China
Initial counselling is a paid session — Rs 1,000 online, or Rs 5,000 for a session with Director Sir Hanif. We charge for it because it is real work: we go through your marks, your budget and your plans properly rather than handing you a brochure.
Book a Counselling Session Read: what the MDCAT decision means