Overseas Pakistanis urge PM to address problems of foreign students

MARDAN: Overseas Pakistanis have asked the prime minister to help address difficulties faced by foreign students who wanted to get admission to MBBS and BDS programmes in Pakistan.

Talking to The News on phone, Engineer Naeem Shamsher, Chairman of Pakistan Canada Professional Cambridge Ontario Canada, and Engineer Dr Ashfaq, Alberta Transportation Edmonton, said that the challenge arises from the current policy that required these students to submit SAT-II scores despite the fact that the SAT-II was officially discontinued by the College Board in 2021.

They said that as per the 2023 Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) admission regulations, released on July 13, 2023, the SAT-II was still listed as an alternative to the MDCAT for overseas and foreign applicants.

However, the globally recognized SAT, they said, had replaced the SAT-II and was now used widely for undergraduate admissions in countries such as the US and Canada. They argued that forcing students to travel to Pakistan or Saudi Arabia to take the MDCAT placed an unnecessary financial and logistical burden on families living in North America, the Middle East and countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

They said that this had resulted in many reserved seats going unfilled, costing Pakistan both talent and economic gain. Unlike the MDCAT, the SAT was accessible in many international testing centres, making it a more practical solution for students abroad, they pointed out. The education experts and parents asked the government to update the admission policy and allow the SAT to replace the defunct SAT-II for the 2025-2026 academic year.

They believed that revising the policy would simplify the admission process, increase enrollment from overseas, and boost foreign exchange through tuition and living expenses. They hoped the prime minister would act swiftly and instruct the PMDC to adopt the change.