Chengdu Medical College — guide for international students

Chengdu Medical College (成都医学院, CMC) is a full-time general medical university run by the Sichuan Provincial People’s Government. It was founded in 1947 and spent 57 years as a military institution; in 2004 it was transferred to civilian, provincial control and renamed from the Chengdu Military Medical College of the Third Military Medical University (第三军医大学成都军医学院) to Chengdu Medical College. The university still describes its ethos in terms of that past — its introduction speaks of carrying forward the “Red Doctor” spirit and of an approach “rooted in the military spirit, grounded in medicine, stressing application”.

CMC has two campuses in Chengdu with a combined area of more than 1,500 mu: the Xindu Campus at 783 Xindu Avenue, Xindu District, which is also the address international applicants correspond with, and the Tianhui Campus at 601 Tianhui Road, Rongdu Avenue, Jinniu District. The university enrols more than 15,000 full-time students, including over 1,700 graduate students, and has more than 1,200 staff and over 800 full-time and external master’s supervisors. It offers 24 undergraduate majors — four of them national first-class undergraduate major construction sites and 13 provincial ones — and 18 master’s degree authorisations (5 first-level academic and 13 professional degree programs).

Clinical training rests on nine directly run and jointly built affiliated hospitals with more than 15,000 open beds between them. On the university’s own figures, clinical medicine is in the top 5‰ of the ESI global rankings and pharmacology and toxicology in the ESI global top 1%; clinical medicine, public health and preventive medicine, and pharmacy are construction disciplines in Sichuan’s provincial “Double First-Class” Gongga Plan. CMC is not a national Double First-Class university.

Chengdu Medical College’s international degree admission is a single route: the English-taught Master of Medicine in clinical medicine, run by the International Exchange and Cooperation Office (对外交流合作处). The 2026 enrolment notice, published on 6 May 2026, offers 10 places for a three-year program taught in English, with applications accepted from 6 May to 30 June 2026 by email to cmcis@cmc.edu.cn. Three things are worth knowing before you start. First, although teaching is in English, every applicant must hold HSK Level 4 or above — and the level has risen: the 2024 notice asked for HSK Level 3, and the 2025 notice also said Level 3, so do not rely on an older notice. Second, the program is only for graduates in clinical medicine: you need a clinical medicine bachelor’s diploma and degree, or, if you are in your final year, an officially sealed certificate of enrolment. Third, CMC does not publish an undergraduate (MBBS) or doctoral admission route for international students — its 2026 undergraduate admission charter covers domestic students only and says nothing about foreign applicants, and the international office’s notices from 2022 to 2026 are all for the clinical master’s. The Ministry of Education states that universities not on its annual list may not enrol English-taught undergraduate clinical medicine students or issue MBBS degrees; CMC’s own pages make no claim to be on that list, so treat any MBBS offer at CMC from a third party with caution and check the current Ministry list yourself.

Degree programs

Select a degree level to see tuition, duration and entry requirements.

Non-degree programs

Documents to prepare

Application timeline

These are the dates Chengdu Medical College published for the 2026 intake. That cycle has closed. Use them as a guide to when each step falls in the year, and check the official pages for the 2027 dates before you plan around them.

Chengdu Medical College publishes one scholarship for its international master’s students: a university award of RMB 25,000 per academic year — the same amount as the tuition fee — that can be used only as a tuition waiver and is reviewed every year. The admission notices do not name any Chinese Government (CSC) channel or Sichuan provincial scholarship at CMC, and do not set out a separate scholarship application or deadline, so ask the International Exchange and Cooperation Office how the award is assessed when you apply.

CMC is a teaching-led provincial medical university, and its research is built around its clinical base rather than a large national-laboratory network. The university counts 8 provincial research platforms, 14 departmental-level platforms and 21 university-level platforms, and reports that clinical medicine sits in the top 5‰ of ESI global rankings and pharmacology and toxicology in the ESI top 1%. Its strongest disciplines, by provincial designation, are clinical medicine, public health and preventive medicine, and pharmacy — the three in Sichuan’s Gongga Plan.

CMC’s international activity, as published by its International Exchange and Cooperation Office, runs mainly outward — short summer and winter programs that send CMC’s own students abroad — alongside a small number of institutional agreements. Recent notices record programs with the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford (a clinical skills program), the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, the University of Tokyo, the University of Adelaide, the University of Auckland and Assumption University in Thailand. The office does not publish a count of partner institutions or of international students enrolled at CMC.

CMC does not publish employment information, graduate-outcome figures or career services aimed at international students on its international office pages. The master’s route ends in a Master of Medicine degree; the admission notice says nothing about Chinese medical licensing or practising in China after graduation, so if you intend to practise clinically, check the licensing rules of the country where you plan to work before applying.

International master’s students live in university accommodation priced by room type, and the university correspondence address — the International Exchange and Cooperation Office on the Xindu Campus — is where applications are handled. CMC’s international pages do not describe the dormitory buildings, their facilities or which campus international students are housed on, so ask the office before you arrive.

Accommodation

Dining

CMC does not publish dining arrangements or meal costs for international students on its international pages — budget for food separately and ask the office.

Facilities

Reach the International Exchange and Cooperation Office (对外交流合作处), Chengdu Medical College — International Exchange Division, Administration Building Room 407 for questions about applications, documents, scholarships and arrival. Type college programs and offices are based on campus in Chengdu.