Singapore adds India’s Manipal Academy to medical colleges for taking in doctors

Singapore will recognise medical degrees from eight additional overseas universities, including Manipal Academy in India, to meet growing healthcare demand from its ageing population. The move increases registrable foreign medical schools to 120, ensuring high standards through SMC supervision

Singapore: Aspiring doctors in Singapore can study in another eight overseas institutions, including Manipal Academy of Higher Education in India, as the city-state will recognise degrees from these universities to meet growing demand from the ageing population.

The newly approved schools will help Singapore better meet the growing demand for doctors amid an ageing population, the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Singapore Medical Council (SMC) said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

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The latest addition of the eight universities brings the total number of recognised overseas medical schools in Singapore from 112 to 120 as of February 1, 2026. The Ministry said it has accepted SMC’s recommendation to add eight medical schools to the Second Schedule of the Medical Registration Act 1997.

Besides Manipal, the other universities added to the medical college lists are: Adelaide University in Australia, University of Galway in Ireland, Universiti Sains Malaysia in Malaysia, The Aga Khan University Medical College in Pakistan, Tsinghua University in China, University of Exeter in Britain and City St George’s, University of London in Britain.

From 2026, students who wish to pursue a medical degree can apply to these overseas schools, said the statement.

“SMC regularly reviews the list of registrable medical qualifications to ensure that foreign-trained medical doctors who apply to practise in Singapore have received training that is comparable with schools in Singapore,” the statement said.

It added that many factors are taken into consideration, including the international rankings of the schools, ensuring the language of instruction of the schools is in English, and the performance of doctors from these universities.

“The additions (institutions) will allow Singapore to better meet the growing demand for doctors as our population ages, even as we have increased the annual local medical school intake from around 440 students in 2014, to 555 in 2025,” the statement said.

All graduates from the medical schools, whether Singaporean or not, and who graduated before or after 2026, can register with SMC to practise medicine in Singapore.

“SMC will continue to assess foreign-trained medical doctors in their initial years through a supervisory framework to ensure high standards of medical practice,” the statement said.