Study MBBS at Avicenna Tajik State Medical University
Dushanbe, Tajikistan · Teaching since 1939 · English-Medium General Medicine
Quick Overview
Avicenna Tajik State Medical University is a state university in Dushanbe that has taught medicine since 1939 and has run an English-medium programme for Indian and Pakistani citizens since 2008. It is effectively the whole of Tajikistan’s FMGE cohort: of the 1,196 Tajikistan-trained candidates who sat FMGE in 2024, 1,195 came from Avicenna. Its record across all NBEMS reports is 1,174 passes from 5,939 candidates - 19.77%, below the 25.80% all-country average, with 2024 its best year at 26.03% and 2025 back down to 18.36%. It publishes no tuition figure anywhere on its own site. Listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools (F0000842); NMC approves no foreign university.
About Avicenna TSMU
Medicine has been taught on this base since 1939, and the university dates its own story a little earlier: an institute was founded in Stalinabad - today’s Dushanbe - in 1933, closed after two years, and reopened in 1939 with eight departments, a library and a single medical faculty. It was the Tajik State Medical Institute until 1992, when it took university status, and the World Directory still carries the whole chain of former names on its record: Stalinabad Institute of Medicine, Tajik Medical Institute, Tajik State Medical University Named After Abuali Ibn Sino, and the abbreviation TGMU that agent sites sometimes present as a separate university.
It now runs five faculties - General Medicine, Pediatrics, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Public Health - across 62 departments, with more than 297 doctors and candidates of medical sciences and professors on staff and seven academicians and corresponding members of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Tajikistan. Its international department reports students from 32 countries and more than 3,134 foreign graduates to date. The university does not publish a total enrolment figure.
For Indian applicants the record that matters is the World Directory entry, FAIMER SCHOOL ID F0000842. It shows instruction beginning in 1939, ECFMG eligibility running from the 1953 graduating year through to the present, and accreditation granted on 22 April 2022 by the Independent Agency for Accreditation and Rating in Kazakhstan - an agency recognised by the World Federation for Medical Education, which is what puts the programme inside Intealth’s Recognized Accreditation Policy. None of that is NMC approval, because no such thing exists for any foreign university.
Avicenna TSMU is the only Tajik university we run an admission page for — see the full MBBS in Tajikistan guide for the other institutions the Embassy of India names, and for what is actually known about each of them.
Location
Dushanbe, Tajikistan
WDOMS / FAIMER ID
F0000842
Founded
Teaching since 1939
Total Enrolment
Not published; foreign students from 32 countries
Programme
General Medicine, English medium
Course length
Six years per the Health Ministry - see the note below
Annual Tuition
Not published by the university
Intake
Autumn - the 2026/27 international window ran 1-20 August 2026
Clinical Training & Teaching Hospitals
Course Length - Get This in Writing
The one item on this page worth arguing about with the university before you pay.
Read this before you sign anything. Two official records describe this programme differently, and the difference is exactly the difference between a degree India will register and one it will not. Tajikistan’s Minister of Health and Social Protection wrote to the Embassy of India on 18 March 2024, on ministry letterhead, that Avicenna’s teaching is in English and that "the duration of education at the bachelor’s level in the field of medicine is 6 years including 1 year internship" - so five years of study plus twelve months, which clears FMGL-2021’s 54-month study requirement with six months to spare. The university’s own admission rules for foreign students say General Medicine is six years. The Embassy’s July 2026 advisory says the same in different words: five years, followed by a one-year internship. But the World Directory of Medical Schools carries a separate entry for Avicenna’s "General Medicine program for citizens of India and Pakistan" - the English-medium MBBS track, running since 2008, curriculum last revised March 2026 - and records its duration as five years including the one-year internship. On that reading the study block is 48 months, below the 54 FMGL-2021 requires, and the internship cannot be counted toward it. We are not going to resolve this for you in the university’s favour. Ask Avicenna to state the split - months of study, months of internship, and where the internship is served - in writing on your admission letter. It costs nothing to ask and it is the one number your Indian registration depends on.
Three records say six years total
Five years of study plus a 12-month internship. That is 60 months of study against the 54 FMGL-2021 asks for. Sources: Tajikistan's Ministry of Health and Social Protection, in a signed letter to the Embassy of India dated 18 March 2024; the university's own admission rules for foreign students; and the Embassy's advisory of 10 July 2026.
One record says five years total
The World Directory's separate entry for the “General Medicine program for citizens of India and Pakistan” gives a curriculum duration of five years including the one-year internship. That leaves 48 months of study, and FMGL-2021 does not let the internship count toward the 54. Curriculum last revised March 2026.
English requirement: No IELTS. The university’s own admission rules for foreign students list nine documents for the 2026/27 intake - school certificate and passport copy with notarised translations, a Form 038/u medical certificate, an HIV test certificate, six 3x4 photographs, a folder, ten file sleeves, an envelope and the application form - and an English certificate is not among them. Do expect to pick up working Tajik or Russian anyway: the Embassy notes that foreign students are generally expected to reach basic proficiency in the local language as part of the curriculum, and that it matters during the internship, where you are talking to patients.
Fees - Why No Number Appears Here
We publish figures universities publish. This one does not publish any.
Annual tuition: not published by the university
Avicenna publishes no tuition figure. That is not a gap in our research: we went through the university’s own sitemap - all 12,727 URLs, across its Tajik, Russian and English sites - and found no fee page, no contract price list and no hostel rate among them. Every number you will find online - $4,500, $4,800, $5,100 a year, take your pick - comes from an agent site, and those sites do not agree with each other. The Embassy of India in Dushanbe gives the same instruction we do: obtain the latest fee details directly from the university, and note that fees may vary from year to year. A.J Trust gets you a written quote from the university before you commit to anything.
Accommodation: The university has dormitories - its own news pages reference a Dormitory No. 7 - but it publishes no capacity figure and no rate. The Embassy of India advises students to check hostel availability at their university in advance, which is sound: ask for it in writing along with the fee quote, not after you land.
Note: Fees are set by the university, not by us, and can change by academic year. Ask us for a written quote from Avicenna and treat any figure you see elsewhere - ours included, if we ever print one without a source - as unverified.
Get a Written Quote →FMGE Record - Official NBEMS Data
Every figure reads passed of appeared, from the NBEMS institute-wise performance reports.
| Report year | Appeared | Passed | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 347 | 65 | 18.73% |
| 2020 | 548 | 55 | 10.04% |
| 2021 | 679 | 143 | 21.06% |
| 2022 | 941 | 207 | 22.00% |
| 2023 | 1,216 | 207 | 17.02% |
| 2024 | 1,195 | 311 | 26.03% |
| 2025 | 1,013 | 186 | 18.36% |
| Lifetime (all reports) | 5,939 | 1,174 | 19.77% |
Context: the 2024 national average across all countries was 25.80% - 20,382 of 79,000 candidates. A pass rate describes cohorts who enrolled six or more years before the report year, including repeat attempts - treat it as a record, not a promise.
Eligibility Criteria for Indian Students
NEET Qualified
Valid NEET UG score mandatory as per NMC norms. Min. 50th percentile (General), 40th percentile (SC/ST/OBC).
PCB Percentage
Minimum 50% aggregate in Physics, Chemistry & Biology in Class 12 (40% for SC/ST/OBC, 45% for General-PwD).
Age Requirement
Must be 17 years or above as on 31 December of the year of admission.
No English Test
Avicenna's own nine-item checklist for international applicants asks for no IELTS, no TOEFL and no entrance exam. Expect to pick up basic Tajik or Russian during the course.
Admission Procedure
Fill Application Form
Submit basic details and attach the university's nine required documents through A.J Trust.
Get the Course Length in Writing
Ask Avicenna to state months of study, months of internship, and where the internship is served - on the admission letter. Official records conflict on this, and it is what NMC will read.
Read the Contract Before Signing
The Embassy of India advises signing nothing that is only in Russian or Tajik. We get you an English or bilingual contract and go through it with you.
Apostille Your Documents
Indian certificates and mark sheets must be apostilled by the MEA (CPV Division), New Delhi, before admission abroad.
Student Visa & Travel
Apply for the Tajik student visa with the university's invitation letter; our team arranges pickup and check-in on arrival.
Register With the Embassy
Register with the Embassy of India in Dushanbe on arrival, then begin the General Medicine programme.
How it works at Avicenna TSMU, specifically
- The 2026/27 application window for international applicants ran from 1 to 20 August 2026; confirm the current dates with us rather than with a forwarded screenshot.
- Nine documents, listed by the university itself: school leaving certificate and passport copy each with a notarised translation, a medical certificate on Form 038/u, an HIV test certificate, six 3x4 cm photographs, a document folder, ten transparent file sleeves, an envelope and the completed application form.
- Ask for the course structure in writing - months of study, months of internship, and where the internship is served. See the course-length note above; it is the single item on this page worth arguing about.
- Certificates and mark sheets issued in India must be apostilled by the MEA (CPV Division), New Delhi, before admission. Your Tajik degree must later be apostilled by Tajikistan’s Ministry of Education before you submit it to NMC or a State Medical Council.
- The Embassy advises signing nothing that is only in Russian or Tajik. Insist on an English or bilingual contract and read it before signing.
- Never hand your passport to anyone for safekeeping - the Embassy makes this point explicitly, and it applies to agents as much as to landlords.
Documents Required
School leaving certificate with notarised translation
Passport copy with notarised translation
Medical certificate on Form 038/u
HIV test certificate
Six passport photographs, 3x4 cm
Document folder, ten transparent file sleeves and an envelope
Completed university application form
Valid NEET UG score card (required by NMC, not by the university)
This is the university's own list for international applicants, 2026/27 - it asks for no English certificate and no entrance exam. Indian certificates must be apostilled by the MEA (CPV Division), New Delhi, before admission, and your Tajik degree must later be apostilled by Tajikistan's Ministry of Education before NMC or a State Medical Council will accept it. Pay only to the university's own account, and never hand your passport to anyone for safekeeping - the Embassy of India makes that point explicitly. A.J Trust guides every document step at no cost.
Why Study MBBS at Avicenna TSMU?
English medium, confirmed on ministry letterhead
not an agent’s claim. Tajikistan’s Minister of Health wrote to the Embassy of India in March 2024 that Avicenna "follows curriculum of medical study (theory, practical and clinical training) equivalent to MBBS India and medium of instruction is English."
The only Tajik university with a real FMGE track record
5,939 candidates across all NBEMS reports. Every other institution in the country is a rounding error next to it, which means you can actually look up how its graduates have done instead of guessing.
No IELTS and no entrance exam
the university’s own nine-item document checklist for international applicants asks for neither. Your NEET score and your Class 12 PCB marks are what decide eligibility.
ECFMG eligibility back to 1953
one of the longest unbroken windows on any Central Asian record, and it matters if the USMLE is ever on your list.
Licensure in Tajikistan at par with citizens
the Health Ministry’s letter states that after the compulsory one-year rotatory internship a foreign graduate can practise in Tajikistan with the same rights as a Tajik national. FMGL-2021 asks for exactly that: a qualification that licenses you to practise in the country you studied in.
An Indian mission on the ground
the Embassy in Dushanbe runs a 24x7 helpline, names a Student Welfare Officer, and publishes a standing advisory on medical study in Tajikistan. Not every destination on our roster has that.
Dushanbe - City at a Glance
City
Dushanbe
Region
Capital city
Country
Tajikistan
Dushanbe is Tajikistan’s capital and, as the Embassy of India puts it, the city where most of the country’s universities and medical institutes are located; the Embassy describes the law-and-order situation there as generally satisfactory. Its two standing cautions are worth repeating because they come from the Indian mission itself rather than from a brochure: be careful in public places late at night and around strangers, and expect extremely cold winters - Tajikistan is mountainous, and students are told to bring proper warm clothing and winter footwear. The university is at Sino Street 29-31 in the Sino district, 734003. The Embassy is at 48 Khusravi Dehlavi Street and asks every Indian student to register with it on arrival; its 24x7 emergency helpline is +992-935710262.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about MBBS at Avicenna TSMU
The university does not say, and neither will we. We went through tajmedun.tj’s own sitemap - all 12,727 URLs, across its Tajik, Russian and English sites - and found no fee page, no price list and no hostel rate among them. The figures circulating online - $4,500, $4,800 and $5,100 a year are the three most common - all come from agent sites and none of them agree. The Embassy of India in Dushanbe tells students to obtain fee details directly from the university and warns that fees vary from year to year. A.J Trust gets you a written quote from Avicenna itself before you commit to anything.
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