SSMU Uzbekistan: Indian students flag mismanagement, embassy says 1,400 new admissions exceed its capacity

MBBS Abroad: Indian medical students at Samarkand State Medical University (SSMU) in Uzbekistan have alleged lack of transparency, poor academic quality and unsafe living conditions on the campus, which led the Indian Embassy in Tashkent to issue an advisory and demand accountability from the university.

MBBS students have written a letter to the Indian Embassy and the National Medical Commission (NMC), which publicly shared.

Students also alleged that MD House, the agency managing admissions and fees, gives no proper receipts, lacks CCTV surveillance at its office, and asks students to make “undocumented payments” to individuals.

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Sudden fee hikes without notice, irregular teaching schedules, inadequate faculty, no structured classes or real exams, academic relies only on PDFs, they added.

The accommodation and food facilities were described as substandard, with around 600 Indian students reportedly living in hotels due to lack of campus accommodation.

Some MBBS students also said that they were intimidated from raising complaints and pressured to post "fake positive reviews" by agents and senior students, as mentioned in the letter.

SSMU Uzbekistan: Indian Embassy advisory

These concerns are consistent with an official Indian Embassy advisory issued on October 31, 2025, which had flagged that SSMU had already exceeded its capacity.

The advisory stated that SSMU already has 3,239 international students in the 2024-25 academic year and has enrolled about 1,400 Indians this winter, which “far exceeds its capacity”.

Echoing the concerns of students, the embassy noted that overcrowding has affected the quality of education and medical outreach.

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The advisory also confirmed that complaints had been received against Edsmart, another company involved in admitting Indian students to SSMU. The embassy said it has taken up all issues with the university and is currently awaiting a response.

The embassy urged students to review past advisories related to studying medicine in Uzbekistan and said it will keep updating its list of institutions that fail to meet required norms.