An overview of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education in Nepal and elsewhere.

Though Health Sciences education started in the country as far back as 1934, it was only in 1978 that the MBBS course was started. The first postgraduate (PG) course, which was started, was the MD in general practice, which was started in 1982. It is over the course of the last 22 years, and more specifically after 1993, that there has been a spurt in postgraduate (PG) education. The rapid increase of medical schools/colleges within the country during the last decade, has been the main reason for fulfilling the demand of doctors with postgraduate degrees required for different faculty positions at the newly established medical colleges, This article also looks at the role of foreign qualifications vis-à-vis the local degree for the development of PG programmes within the country.