Singapore Doctors: More Overseas Schools Recognised as Numbers Rise

Singapore is bolstering its healthcare workforce, responding to the demands of an aging population with a multi-pronged approach that includes recognizing more overseas medical schools and increasing local medical school intake.

As of the end of 2024, the total number of registered doctors in Singapore stood at 17,582, a nearly 50 percent increase from the 11,733 registered in 2014, according to data released by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Singapore Medical Council (SMC). This growth has improved the doctor-to-population ratio, decreasing from one doctor per 466 people in 2014 to one doctor per 343 people in 2024. The population figure includes residents and non-residents, excluding tourists and short-term visitors.

The SMC and MOH jointly announced on January 27, 2026, that they would recognize an additional eight overseas institutions for medical training, bringing the total number of recognized schools to 120. This move reverses a significant cut made in January 2020, when more than 35 percent of recognized medical schools were removed from the list, shrinking the pool from 160 to 103.

The 2020 reduction saw significant cuts to recognized schools in several countries, including Canada (from 14 to 7), China (from 8 to 4), the United States (from 38 to 30), Japan (from 8 to 3), and India (from 9 to 2). Five countries – Israel, Italy, Norway, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka – had their medical schools entirely delisted.

At the time, MOH explained that the decision was based on a rising local medical school intake, which had reached around 500 students in 2018. Officials anticipated that this increase would stabilize the need to recruit overseas-trained doctors starting in 2023.

However, the demand for doctors has continued to grow, prompting the recent expansion of recognized overseas institutions. MOH stated that the increasing number of doctors is necessary to meet the healthcare needs of Singapore’s aging population. “We will need to augment our core of local doctors, with a minority of foreign doctors trained overseas,” the ministry said.

Local medical school intake has steadily increased over the past decade. The combined intake across the three medical schools – the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore, Duke-NUS Medical School, and the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at Nanyang Technological University – rose from around 320 in 2010 to 440 in 2014, and further to 510 in 2019. A temporary increase of 40 students per year was added in 2020 and 2021 to accommodate students whose overseas studies were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2025 intake reached 555 students, representing a 25 percent increase over the past decade.

Currently, approximately 60 percent of doctors practicing in Singapore were trained locally. Of the remaining 40 percent who were foreign-trained, more than half are Singaporeans who pursued their medical education overseas and have since returned to practice. More than 31 percent of foreign-trained doctors are permanent residents.

MOH emphasized that foreign-trained doctors are typically subject to conditional or provisional registration and undergo supervision or further training before full registration is granted. The ministry also highlighted the benefits of having doctors with diverse clinical experiences and perspectives.

The SMC regularly reviews the list of registrable medical qualifications to ensure that foreign-trained doctors meet comparable standards to those trained in Singapore. MOH noted that the profession of medicine is one of the few in Singapore where professional bodies regulate entry based on university recognition, in addition to the standard Employment Pass system. “This approach doubly ensures that doctors who care for our patients are trained up to certain standards, thereby safeguarding public health and safety,” MOH stated.

In determining which overseas schools to recognize, the SMC considers factors such as international rankings, the language of instruction (English is preferred), and the performance of graduates from those institutions. While recent rankings from Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed improvements or stability for six of the eight newly recognized schools, two – Aga Khan University Medical College in Pakistan and Manipal Academy of Higher Education’s Kasturba Medical College in India – experienced a slight decline in their QS ranking range between 2024 and 2025. MOH reiterated that the SMC also considers the performance track record of doctors from these universities and compatibility with local practice when making its decisions.

MOH clarified that listing an overseas medical school does not imply a targeted recruitment effort, but rather ensures that qualified doctors from reputable institutions are not excluded from practicing in Singapore.