Georgia’s quality authority has set out how its six-year MD programme matches India’s FMGL Regulations, 2021 — including the registration and right to practise that graduates receive.
For the approximately 20,000 Indian students who have enrolled in Georgian medical universities since 2021, the past month has been unsettling. A September reply by the National Medical Commission (NMC) to a grievance, circulated on social media with captions declaring the Georgian degree “invalid”, triggered calls from anxious parents.
Georgia’s National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement (NCEQE), the agency under the Ministry of Education, Science and Youth that accredits every medical programme in the country, published an updated 17-point statement.
What the FMGL Regulations require
India’s Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate (FMGL) Regulations, notified on November 18, 2021, apply to Indians who enrolled in foreign medical schools after that date. Regulation 4 requires a course of at least 54 months; a 12-month internship in the same institution; English as the medium of instruction; and the subjects listed in Schedule I. Regulation 4(b) adds that the graduate must be registered with the regulatory body of the country of study, with a right to practise “at par” with that country’s own citizens. After that come the FMGE (or NExT when introduced), a further supervised internship in India, and permanent registration.
The NCEQE statement confirms that the MD programme comprises “no fewer than 360 ECTS credits” and “cannot be shorter than six academic years”; that “the sixth year is fully dedicated to a mandatory internship (internatura)” at the university’s clinics and teaching hospitals; that in English-taught programmes “the entire teaching and learning process, including clinical training, is conducted in English”; and that the Schedule I subjects “are fully incorporated into the accredited one-cycle Medical Doctor programmes in Georgia.”
The key question has been Regulation 4(b).
Registration and the right to practise
Under the Law of Georgia on Medical Practice, the statement says, MD graduates “are entitled, irrespective of their citizenship, to be employed as junior doctors”.
On request, the LEPL Regulation Agency for Medical and Pharmaceutical Activities — the State regulator for medical activity — issues a written confirmation to each graduate. “The official certificate from the LEPL Regulation Agency for Medical and Pharmaceutical Activities has an individual (unique) registration number with right to practice,” NCEQE states.
For the “at par” test, the statement says Georgian and foreign graduates “have identical professional rights” and are equally entitled to hold a Junior Doctor (Junior Physician) position and receive remuneration. Nothing in the Georgian law distinguishes by nationality.
Under Article 14, “a junior doctor may engage in independent medical practice where a patient is in a life-threatening condition or requires emergency medical care.” Junior doctors “owe patients the same fundamental duties as physicians,” and their role “is not limited to observation or assistance; within the scope of their professional knowledge and the limits prescribed by law, junior doctors perform clinical functions.”
Supervised or independent: whose decision is it?
The NMC’s September reply had asked whether junior doctor status “legally permits practice at the required level.” Georgian officials explain that whether a new graduate practises under supervision or independently, and for how long, is decided by the law of the country where the doctor works. It is not a property of the degree, the registration or the licence, and no country’s registration carries a scope of practice across a border.
India applies this principle for an MBBS graduate. The United Kingdom gives new graduates provisional registration for a supervised foundation year. The United States allows no independent practice before residency. Georgia grants registration and practice as a junior doctor on graduation, with the Certificate of specialist practice following the postgraduate stage — on the same terms for Indians and Georgians. The qualification is the same in every case; the rule belongs to the country.
Officials further confirm that the Georgian MD is a complete primary medical qualification, equivalent to the MBBS, whose holders are eligible for independent practice through the standard pathway each country applies to an MBBS or equivalent degree: FMGE/NExT and internship in India; ECFMG certification and the USMLE in the US; PLAB and GMC registration in the UK; the Medical Council of Canada examinations; the Australian Medical Council pathway; Approbation in Germany; licensing by the health authorities of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain; and the national registration examinations of Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Georgian law itself treats junior-doctor service as a recognised stage of a licensed career. Article 100 of the Law on Medical Practice allows junior doctors in listed shortage specialties to sit the State certification examination after work equal in length to the residency programme, a route the Health Ministry activated by order in July 2025 for 19 specialties.
Georgian authorities say the complete documentation is being placed before the Indian authorities.
Why the accreditation matters
NCEQE has held recognition from the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) since November 18, 2018, for a ten-year term. Georgia’s Medicine Benchmark, aligned with WFME’s 2020 standards, was last updated on April 1, 2026.
What students and parents should check
– Accreditation: the university’s MD programme must be accredited by NCEQE (list at eqe.ge). Only accredited programmes are covered by the statement.
– Structure: six years, 360 ECTS, with the sixth-year internatura completed at the university’s own clinics and hospitals — FMGL requires the internship in the same institution.
– Medium: English throughout, including clinical rotations; a Georgian-language course for patient communication is part of the curriculum, not a change of medium.
– Registration: after graduation, apply to the Regulation Agency for Medical and Pharmaceutical Activities for written confirmation carrying the individual registration number. Keep it with the degree documents for FMGE/NExT.
– Sources: rely on nmc.org.in, the Gazette of India and eqe.ge, not forwarded posters.
The statement places Georgia’s position on FMGL compliance on the public record.
The NCEQE statement is published at – https://eqe.ge/en/page/static/971/samedicino-ganatlebis-khariskhis-uzrunvelyofa-saqartveloshi
