Healthcare licensing exams in China: licence, title and entrance gates explained

Medical and health education in China

Clinical medicine in China is normally a five-year bachelor degree that includes a clinical clerkship, taught in Chinese. A small group of leading universities also run eight-year MD programmes. Well over a hundred institutions train doctors, under the Ministry of Education, and the National Health Commission sets the rules for practice. Programme accreditation for clinical medicine is run through the Ministry of Education and its medical education accreditation committee. Some universities also offer English-taught MBBS programmes for international students; those students should ask the regulator separately whether the degree leads to a Chinese licence.

A degree alone does not license you. Candidates need the degree plus a period of supervised practice in a qualifying hospital before they can sit the physician qualification exam. After that, most new doctors enter standardised residency training (住院医师规范化培训), usually three years, which is why you will hear the pattern called "5+3". Details change by notice, so check the National Health Commission.

Three gates, not one

Most countries have one licensing exam per profession. China has three separate gates, and candidates often confuse them. They matter at different points in a career.

The first is the licence exam: the National Medical Licensing Examination for doctors, dentists and public-health physicians, the Nurse Practice Qualification Examination, and the Licensed Pharmacist Qualification Examination. Pass one of these and you may register to practise.

The second is the professional title exam (全国卫生专业技术资格考试). It decides your rank inside a hospital, for example junior therapist (治疗士) or therapist (治疗师). For rehabilitation therapists it is the only national qualification that exists. Hospital pharmacists (药士, 药师) are graded through it as well.

The third is the postgraduate entrance exam (考研). For clinical doctors, the Clinical Medicine Comprehensive paper (西医综合, subject 306) is a 300-mark, three-hour MCQ exam set under the Ministry of Education. A clinical master's place bundles standardised residency training, which is why so many final-year students prepare for it. Standardised residency itself has no national entry exam.

This page covers all three where they apply, because a Chinese medical student will usually meet the postgraduate exam and the licence exam within the same two years.

Who needs a licensing exam in China

Graduates of recognised programmes sit the exams below. Holding a hospital post does not replace the licence: a graduate without one cannot practise independently.

• Locally trained: sit the licence exam for their profession, usually after a period of supervised practice (one year for doctors and dentists).
• Foreign nationals with a Chinese medical degree: may sit the doctor exam on the same footing as local candidates.
• Holders of a foreign medical degree: need an equivalence review of the qualification before any exam eligibility is considered. Treat this as a case-by-case matter and confirm with the National Medical Examination Center (NMEC, 国家医学考试中心) before you plan a timetable.
• Residents of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan: may sit the mainland doctor exam if their degree is recognised. The Medical Council of Hong Kong publishes an application notice for its registrants.

Doctors and dentists: the National Medical Licensing Examination

Regulator: National Health Commission (NHC), with the exam run by the NMEC. Local name: 医师资格考试. Dentists sit the stomatology category (口腔执业医师) under the same framework. The framework also covers public health and traditional Chinese medicine categories.

Format. The practical skills test (实践技能考试) is station-based and sits first. The comprehensive written exam (医学综合笔试) follows. It uses the A1, A2, A3 and B1 item types: single best answer, case-based, shared-stem and matching sets. Computer-based delivery is in operation in pilot provinces, so check which format your province uses.

Two levels. There is a full practising physician level and a separate assistant physician level (执业助理医师). Candidates pick the level they are eligible for.

1. Graduate from a recognised medical or stomatology programme.
2. Complete one year of supervised practice.
3. Apply through the provincial examination point for the year's notice.
4. Pass the skills test, then the written exam.
5. Register with the local health authority to receive the practising certificate.

The written paper rewards breadth across basic medicine, clinical medicine, preventive medicine and health law, so a question bank organised by unit is more useful than one organised by textbook chapter.

Nurses and midwives: one exam for both

Regulator: NHC, with the exam run by the NHC Human Resources Development Center (人才交流服务中心). Local name: 护士执业资格考试. The exam is held on a computer (人机对话) and has two units: professional practice (专业实务) and practical competence (实践能力). Items use the A1, A2, A3 and A4 types.

Eligible candidates are graduates of nursing programmes of three years or more, from secondary-vocational level upward. Final-year students may sit it. The exam measures are set out in the NHC document on the nurse practice qualification examination (护士执业资格考试办法).

Midwives. China issues no separate national midwife licence. Midwifery graduates register as nurses, and midwifery practice is governed through hospital credentialing and maternal and child health technical certification (母婴保健技术). A midwifery student in China should therefore prepare for the nurse exam.

Pharmacists: the Licensed Pharmacist Qualification Examination

Regulator: the Certification Center for Licensed Pharmacists (执业药师资格认证中心) under the National Medical Products Administration, working with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Local name: 执业药师职业资格考试.

There are four MCQ papers: Pharmaceutical Knowledge I, Pharmaceutical Knowledge II, Pharmaceutical Administration and Regulations, and Comprehensive Pharmaceutical Knowledge and Skills. A parallel set of papers serves traditional Chinese medicine pharmacists. Candidates have a rolling four-year window in which to pass all papers, so a plan that spreads the papers across sittings is normal. Eligibility depends on a pharmacy or TCM-pharmacy degree plus a required length of work experience in community, hospital or industry settings.

This exam is separate from the hospital title exams for pharmacist-in-training and pharmacist grades. Confirm which one your employer requires.

Physiotherapists: a title exam, not a licence

There is no statutory physiotherapy licence in mainland China. Rehabilitation therapists take the health professional technical qualification exam in rehabilitation medicine therapy technology (康复医学治疗技术). It has four MCQ units: basic knowledge, related professional knowledge, professional knowledge and professional practice ability, and it is computer-based.

The exam grants the therapist titles (治疗士, 治疗师) that hospitals use to grade posts, so in practice it works as the gateway. Anyone expecting a regulator-issued licence like the UK or Australian model will not find one.

Exams in China compared

Language and recognition

All papers are in Chinese, and minority-language papers are offered in some provinces. There is no mutual recognition arrangement that lets a foreign-trained clinician skip the national exam. Candidates from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are the main group with a defined route, and even they must hold a recognised degree.

If you are a foreign-trained professional weighing China against other Asian markets, note that Japan and Korea also examine in the local language only, while Singapore and Hong Kong offer English-language routes of different kinds. See the hubs for those places before you commit.

How to prepare

The China exams are high-volume and item-type driven. A few habits help:

• Learn the item types first. A3 and B1 sets reward reading the shared stem once and answering several questions from it.
• Prepare by unit, not by textbook chapter, so your practice mirrors the way the paper is divided.
• Keep the practical skills test on the calendar even if you are drilling the written paper. It comes first.
• Build a mock-exam rhythm closer to the sitting using the computer-based interface where your province uses it.

Last reviewed October 2026