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To be eligible to take the PLAB test or to apply for registration with us, you must hold or have passed all qualifying exams needed to gain an acceptable overseas qualification.
An overseas primary medical qualification must satisfy all criteria below to be considered an acceptable overseas qualification. Our criteria may change over time, meaning the qualifications we accept now may not always remain acceptable.
Our criteria
Click each heading to see how you need to satisfy us of each of the criteria.
A. Recognised degree in basic medical education
The qualification was gained from an institution, which delivers or delivered a recognised degree programme in basic medical education (allopathic, clinical medicine).
To satisfy this:
The institution that awarded the qualification must have an entry in the World Directory of Medical Schools (WDMS), with contact details to allow for verification of the qualification. The degree title and duration of your qualification, as well as the name of the awarding body and any affiliations, must match this listing and we will consider the content of any sponsor notes.
In limited situations we may accept the qualification where the awarding body is not listed, where this is because: the country or territory of the awarding body is not recognised by the UN or the institution no longer delivers a course in medicine, if we can verify this reason and be satisfied the qualification meets all other criteria.
The qualification must allow the individual holding it to register to practise medicine in the country of the awarding body, which includes allowing them to undertake a period of post-graduate clinical training (usually called a postgraduate internship) in that country.
The qualification must not include study at an institution on the list of those we do not currently accept qualifications from (during the relevant time period, or course of study, where we specify this).
B. Programme of sufficient duration
The programme of study leading to your qualification was of a duration that would have allowed you to gain sufficient basic medical education, comparable to someone who successfully completed a UK PMQ.
To satisfy this:
Your qualification must have been awarded after a programme of study over at least three years. We expect you to have completed no less than 5,500 clock hours and only consider hours in allopathic/clinical medicine. This includes practical/clinical experience and any pre-graduate internship and excludes your own revision or self-study time.
We will ask the institution to confirm the number of years and clock hours of study you completed, the standard duration of its course of study leading to the qualification, and the minimum number of hours that must be completed to graduate with the qualification.
C. If you studied at more than one institution – a full programme at acceptable institutions
Where study at more than one institution contributed to the award of your qualification, you successfully completed a full programme of study in allopathic/clinical medicine, at institutions that are currently acceptable to us.
To satisfy this:
Any course credits transferred to the awarding body must be from a programme that would have led, on successful completion, to the award of a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) or equivalent qualification.
Your programme of study must not have included study at, or course credits transferred from:
a course you failed, or were considered unsuitable to qualify from as a doctor, including where you were awarded an alternative degree or qualification (for example a BSc)
a course you were excluded/removed from due to your performance or conduct, or that you would have been excluded from on this basis had you not chosen to leave
an institution on the list of those we do not currently accept qualifications from (during the relevant time period, or course of study, where specified). If the institution is on the list of those we may accept qualifications from we will need to assess your individual programme of study to determine if it is acceptable.
We will seek your course transcripts to understand what you studied at each institution.
We will ask the institution to confirm the course credits and clock hours (subjects/ modules) you transferred from any previous institution and the factors it considered in accepting you onto its programme.
We will ask institution(s) where you completed your study, to confirm you passed any component/credits it delivered, that contributed to the award of your qualification.
There must be a justifiable reason for why you were unable to complete your qualification at a single institution, such as:
the institutions were partnered to deliver a single course of study, such as a formal ‘twinning programme’, or another affiliated campus of your institution. We will verify this with the institution and request information about agreements in place for course delivery across sites
circumstances beyond your control, such as conflict or political unrest, the impact of events such as a pandemic or extreme environmental conditions; the institution you attended closed or stopped delivering a degree in medicine while you were studying there
personal circumstances, for example, relocation of your family or job/employment, or a reason arising from your disability.
We will usually only accept a qualification where the individual transferred between institutions no more than once during their programme of study. If you needed to transfer between institutions more than this, for justifiable reasons, we will consider those reasons.
We will seek to verify the reason(s) for any transfer with the institutions where you studied.
D. Sufficient clinical and practical experience
The programme of study provided sufficient practical experience, to allow you to link theory and practice and to integrate this into patient care.
To satisfy this:
Your institution must have arranged for you to undertake a series of clinical placements/rotations (or a pre-graduate internship, where relevant) as part of the programme of study leading to your qualification, which provided:
appropriate clinical experience and exposure to a range of specialties, which must include medicine and surgery
sufficient opportunity to work with and learn from other healthcare colleagues and to interact with patients in-person, and
that were effectively overseen by your institution. This includes having formal agreements with placement providers, that include arrangements for supervision, the learning objectives and how students will receive feedback on their progress.
We also consider whether the clinical rotations/placements:
increased in duration, in-person interactions and responsibility as the programme progressed
were of sufficient duration to allow supervisors to make reliable judgements about your abilities and progress against learning objectives
provided opportunities to safely develop practical skills and procedures under supervision
were regularly monitored by the institution for quality and effectiveness.
We may seek your course transcripts to confirm the clinical experience undertaken as part of your programme of study.
We will ask the institution to confirm clock hours spent undertaking clinical placements in each year of the programme (as well as any pre-graduate internship, if relevant).
E. Appropriate teaching methods
The programme of study leading to your qualification was delivered using appropriate teaching methods, to allow you to gain sufficient basic medical education, comparable to that of someone who successfully completed a UK PMQ.
To satisfy this:
The majority of the programme of study, including theoretical and clinical elements, must have been undertaken in-person at the institution (including affiliated campuses and clinical settings). We will only consider significant use of online or virtual learning in exceptional circumstances, such as during a conflict or global pandemic.
We will ask the institution to confirm any study completed online/virtually and whether this was theoretical or clinical learning. We may ask about its mechanisms to check its students’ progress and understanding of online material.
F. If we receive information which calls into question the veracity of the qualification, or indicates irregularities in the programme of study, we may decide we are unable to accept the qualification, even where it satisfies all the criteria above.
