How Are Indian Medical Students Benefitting From WFME accreditation?

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has recently released a notification addressing the Frequently Asked Questions regarding World Federation for Medical Education (WFME). The medical commission was earlier granted the coveted WFME recognition status for completing a tenure of 10 years. The recognition aims to enhance the quality and standards of medical education in India by aligning them with the global best practices and benchmarks.

The World Federation for Medical Education is a global non-governmental organisation dedicated to enhancing the quality of medical education worldwide. WFME's accreditation program plays an important role in ensuring that medical institutes meet and uphold the highest international standards of education and training. The WFME recognition program evaluates agencies against internationally accepted criteria for accreditation.

After the grant of the status, individuals applying for ECFMG (Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates) certification and USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Examination) must be a graduate of a medical school that is officially recognized by an agency accredited by WFME. Consequent to the accreditation of NMC by WFME, all medical students from medical colleges recognised by NMC will become eligible to apply for ECFMG certification and USMLE.

WFME does not provide an accreditation process for medical schools. The WFME recognition agenda grants recognition status to individual accrediting agencies normally operating within a specific country that have been evaluated as meeting WFME recognition criteria.

The purpose of the WFME Recognition Program is to provide a transparent and rigorous method of ensuring that accreditation of medical schools, world-wide, is at an internationally accepted and high standard.

Agencies that are eligible to apply for WFME recognition include a government or inter-governmental entity, an independent professional body that is authorized or recognised by the relevant national or state/provincial government (Ministry of Health or Ministry of Education or both), or the legislator (parliament), or an independent professional body that is authorized or recognized by a professional or scientific association with appropriate authority.

There are no additional obligations of medical colleges during the WFME site visit. The medical colleges are required to remain compliant with NMC minimum standard requirements, NMC curriculum and various notifications issued by NMC from time to time. Any additional requirements to be fulfilled by the medical colleges as stipulated by WFME shall be intimated to the concerned medical college in advance.

The medical colleges are required to follow the NMC's CBME curriculum which has been endorsed by WFME. There is provision in the NMC curriculum to cater to local and regional requirements.
After the recognition, all the 706 existing medical colleges in India will become WFME accredited and the new medical colleges that will be set up in the coming 10 years will also automatically become WFME accredited. It will also enable Indian medical graduates to pursue postgraduate training and practice in other countries that require WFME recognition, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

With NMC being WFME accredited all the Indian students become eligible to apply for Education Commission on Foreign Medical Education and United States Medical Licensing Examination.