Eligibility for PLAB Part 1

Criteria acceptable overseas qualifications for PLAB Part 1:

• Your primary medical qualification: must be in allopathic medicine and must satisfy all of the following criteria.
  • Must have been awarded after a programme of study, comprising at least 5,500 hours over a minimum period of three years.
  • You can read more about the Basic medical training requirements your qualification must meet if you don’t have a UK or Relevant European qualification.

• • Please click on the relevant link below, which explains the basic medical training requirements your qualification must meet, depending on whether you are:
    1. An EEA national or person relying on enforceable community rights, with a non-EEA primary medical qualification
    2. A UK or non-EEA national not relying on enforceable community rights with a non-EEA or UK primary medical qualification.
  • NB: the criteria are subject to change. The criteria to be applied will be in force at the point of taking PLAB or applying to register with the board.

World Directory of Medical Schools:

• Your qualification must be awarded by: an institution listed on the World Directory of Medical Schools.
• Where a qualification is not listed in the directory: the board may still accept it if the reason it’s not listed is that either:
  1. the country awarding the qualification is not recognised by the United Nations, or
  2. the institution that awarded the qualification no longer exists or no longer delivers medical education and the board is certain the qualification is valid.
• In each of these circumstances, the qualification must satisfy all of the other criteria for an overseas qualification to be acceptable.
• Where relevant, the institution listed in the directory must have sufficient contact details (address or email address, fax or telephone number) to allow verification of the qualifications it has issued.

Clinical rotations required for PLAB Part 1:

• You must have done clinical rotations (clinical clerkships) as part of your primary medical qualification, which have given you appropriate clinical experience. This means the clinical rotations:
  1. must have been of an acceptable duration
  2. included exposure to medicine and surgery
  3. were overseen or approved by the institution you attended
  4. formed part of your overall programme of study.

If you have studied at more than one institution:

• If you have studied at more than one institution and the study contributed to the award of your primary medical qualification, the board need to be sure that:

1. • The institution is part of a recognised twinning programme or a recognised campus of another institution, or
   • It was not possible to complete your qualification at one institution for justifiable reasons.

• The course credits that contributed to the award of your qualification must not have included credits transferred from another institution where you failed.

European medical qualifications:

• European medical qualifications will always be acceptable.

Overseas medical qualifications that are not accepted for PLAB Part 1:

• Below are the primary medical qualifications that the board don’t currently accept due to previous assessments against our criteria.

Why is your medical school on this list?

• There are a number of reasons why the board might not accept a qualification. For example, if the board:
  • has information that shows the qualification doesn’t meet our acceptability criteria
  • has questions about the acceptability of the qualification and, after investigation, are not satisfied that the qualification is acceptable
  • gets information about irregularities of the programme of study or the awarding of qualifications and are not satisfied that the qualification is acceptable.
• the board only places a medical school on this list once the board has carried out a full investigation and concluded that it is the most appropriate course of action.
• If you have any queries about this list, please contact the board.
• Please note that the criteria the board uses to define an acceptable overseas qualification can change.

overseas medical qualifications that may be accepted for PLAB Part 1:

• The board assesses these qualifications on a case by case basis against our current criteria. Please note that the criteria the board uses to define an acceptable overseas qualification may change.

What should you do if your medical school is listed?

• If you are a graduate of any of the institutions on this list, and you are thinking of applying to sit the PLAB test or registering with the board, please email gmc@gmc-uk.org.
• You need to include your GMC reference number (if you have one) and full details of your medical school.

Why is your medical school on this list?

• There are a number of reasons why the board may add a medical institution to this list. For example, where the board has information that:
  • the medical school offers courses that lead to qualifications that do not meet the criteria alongside some courses that do.

Qualifications not listed in the world directory of medical schools:

• Some qualifications aren’t listed on the World Directory of Medical Schools.
• the board only accepts these qualifications where:
  1. The country awarding the qualification is not recognised by the United Nations, or
  2. It is a primary European qualification but the applicant is not a European national or entitled to be treated as such, and
  3. It meets all of our current acceptability criteria.
• The board accepts qualifications from the schools listed below. 

My qualification isn’t in the directory and isn’t listed above:

• If your qualification isn’t listed above, but you think it should be, please email gmc@gmc-uk.org. You need to include your GMC reference number (if you have one) and full details of your medical school.
• the board wil make an assessment as quickly as possible. But note there can be delays when the board needs to get information from the medical school.

Are you an EEA national with an overseas qualification?

• To be acceptable to the board, your primary medical qualification must have been awarded after a programme of study that was made up of at least 5,500 hours and lasted at least five years.
• A programme of study is the course of study followed by each individual applicant leading to their qualification and does not include:
  1. study at an institution where you were considered unsuitable to qualify as a doctor
  2. study at an institution where you were refused graduation
  3. study at an institution where you were offered an alternative degree title
  4. study at an institution that isn’t acceptable to the board
  5. study at an institution that wasn’t acceptable to the board at the time of your studies there.
• This is a requirement of Article 24 of the Directive on Recognition of Professional Qualifications (the Directive).
• Article 24 falls within Chapter 3 of Title II, which provides for recognition of professional qualifications ‘on the basis of coordination of minimum training conditions’.

Are you from the UK or outside the EEA with a qualification from outside the UK or EEA?

• To be acceptable to us, your primary medical qualification must have been awarded after a programme of study that was made up of at least 5,500 hours and lasted at least three years.
• A programme of study is the course of study followed by each individual applicant leading to their qualification and does not include:
  1. study at an institution where you were considered unsuitable to qualify as a doctor
  2. study at an institution where you were refused graduation
  3. study at an institution where you were offered an alternative degree title
  4. study at an institution that isn’t acceptable to the board
  5. study at an institution that wasn’t acceptable to the board at the time of your studies there.

Also Read:

1. An overview of PLAB Test
2. PLAB Part 1 application & Test day
3. PLAB Part 1 results & related
4. English requirement for PLAB Part 1
5. Guidelines to prepare for PLAB Part 1
6. PLAB Part 2 application & Test day
7. PLAB Part 2 Results & Related
8. Guidelines to prepare for PLAB Part 2

Also Watch:

1. What do you need to know about the PLAB test?