Beijing: China has become the destination for many aspiring Indian doctors, with the government providing them with an easy access to their medical universities.

It is not just the lower fees but simple admission procedures that have triggered the flow to Chinese medical universities. Students with 70 per cent and above in the Indian intermediate examination are given admission.

"There are more than 6,000 Indian students studying in China now, mainly for medical science", Jasminder Kasturia, First Secretary of the Indian Embassy to China, told state-run China Daily.

More than 400 Indian students are studying for a bachelor's degree of medicine at Tianjin Medical University and the number of applications from India far exceeds the available places at the university, said Professor Guo Fenglin, Director of the University's International Exchange Department.

Chinese medical university charges an average tuition fee between $2,000 and 3,000 a year and another $1,000 for boarding and lodging, one fourth of what it costs in India.

"This is much more affordable, in India, all the places are taken up even before the exams, so even though we study hard we can't get a place over there", Manpreet Kaur, a second year medical student at TMU was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Of course, ultimately, students studying medicine in China will have to pass the Indian Medical Council test. "If the pass rate is more than 60 per cent, then our education is successful", says Miao Jingcheng, Deputy Dean of the School of Medicine under the Suzhou University in East China's Jiangsu province.

Source : PTI