Singapore adds India’s Manipal Academy to its list of Recognized Medical Colleges
Introduction
Newly approved schools will help Singapore meet the growing demand for doctors from an ageing population, as stated on Tuesday by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Singapore Medical Council (SMC). As per the statement, from 2026, aspiring doctors in Singapore will be able to study at another eight overseas Recognised Medical Schools.
The ministry continues that it has accepted SMC’s recommendation to add eight medical schools to the Second Schedule of the Medical Registration Act 1997.
More in the statement is that ‘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’.
Singapore has added Manipal Academy of Higher Education (India), along with several other medical colleges of other countries to their list of ‘Recognised Overseas Medical Schools’.
The list of Recognised Overseas Medical Colleges has moved to 120 from 112 as of February 1, 2026, these newly added schools are Adelaide University in Australia, University of Galway in Ireland, University 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.
The authority said that to select the eight overseas medical colleges, many factors were considered like international rankings of the schools, ensuring the language of instruction of the schools, performance of doctors. The authority also increased the annual local medical school intake from around 440 students (2014) to 555 students (555).
