Nanjing Medical University — guide for international students

Nanjing Medical University (南京医科大学), which calls itself NMU in its English materials, was established in 1934 as the Jiangsu Provincial College of Health Policy and Management. It was renamed National Jiangsu Medical College in the period 1937–1945, moved to Nanjing in 1957 as Nanjing Medical College, and took its present name in 1993. The university’s English overview notes that it was one of the first institutions in China to admit graduate students, as early as 1941.

NMU is a single-discipline medical university rather than a comprehensive one, and that shapes everything an international applicant can choose: clinical medicine, public health, pharmacy, nursing, stomatology and the biomedical sciences. It has three campuses — Jiangning and Wutai in Nanjing, and a Changzhou campus that the English overview (updated May 2026) still describes as soon to open — organised into 19 schools with 25 undergraduate majors. The Chinese-language profile (updated September 2026) counts more than 24,000 students and more than 2,000 staff; the English overview gives "a total student body exceeding 23,000" and "nearly 2,000 faculty members". Both are cited below.

In February 2022 NMU entered the national Double First-Class list, with public health and preventive medicine selected as its first-class discipline, and the English overview describes its School of Public Health as a top-tier school officially recognised by the Ministry of Education. The university holds doctoral authorisation in 7 first-level and 54 second-level disciplines, has 3 national key disciplines and 40 national clinical key specialties, and counts 14 disciplines in the ESI global top 1%, four of them — clinical medicine, pharmacology and toxicology, molecular biology and genetics, and biology and biochemistry — in the top 1‰. NMU does not publish a total international-student headcount on its English pages; the English homepage’s world map shows 276 Indian students currently enrolled and 639 Indian students who have studied at NMU in total.

NMU admits international students to two undergraduate programmes in clinical medicine — the English-taught MBBS and a Chinese-taught Bachelor Program in Clinical Medicine — and to master’s and doctoral study, all through the online system at admission.njmu.edu.cn. The 2026 notices, published by the School of International Education in January 2026, are the current ones; NMU has not yet published its 2027 international admission notices. Three things set NMU’s route apart. First, every undergraduate applicant must sit the China Scholastic Competency Assessment (CSCA) — Mathematics and Chemistry are compulsory for the MBBS, and Chinese-taught applicants add Professional Chinese (STEM) — and submit a score report from the past 12 months. Second, selection is by document review plus an online interview; the notices warn that an applicant who declines both interview dates offered loses eligibility. Third, a pre-admission letter is only turned into an official admission letter and JW202 visa form once you pay a non-refundable deposit — CNY 13,000 for the MBBS, CNY 4,500 for Chinese-taught clinical medicine, CNY 18,000 for most master’s programmes and CNY 5,000 for the MPH and doctoral programmes. NMU’s own FAQ (written for 2022) adds that the deposit must be paid even by students who win a full-tuition scholarship. Undergraduate applicants must be under 25; master’s applicants no older than 35 and doctoral applicants no older than 40 at the time of enrollment. NMU’s 2026 MBBS notice makes no statement about recognition of the degree by any foreign medical council or directory — if you intend to practise at home, check your own country’s licensing rules for a Chinese MBBS directly with that regulator.

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 Nanjing Medical University 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.

NMU’s entrance scholarships are awarded automatically: the university’s FAQ states that NMU scholarship candidates are considered on admission, with no separate form, and that every new student receives some kind of scholarship or a combination. The 2026 notices publish the share of students who receive each award, which is unusually transparent — and shows that for the MBBS most awards are small: 5% of new MBBS students receive full tuition and 70% receive the CNY 5,000 General Entrance Scholarship. The Chinese-taught clinical medicine programme is far more generous, with full-tuition awards going to half of new students. Government awards come on top: the Jiangsu Government (Jasmine) Scholarship and the Nanjing Government Scholarship, whose seats are decided by the governments each year. For students already enrolled, NMU runs an Outstanding International Student Scholarship.

NMU’s research is concentrated in clinical medicine and the biomedical sciences, with public health as its flagship. Its English research pages present a running list of recent achievements rather than aggregate statistics — in 2026 they include work on cardiac repair published in Circulation, antiviral immunity in PNAS, reproductive medicine, cancer immunotherapy in Gut and Cell Metabolism, and biomaterials design, much of it from the affiliated hospitals. The university profile counts more than 50 national and provincial key laboratories, engineering research centres and innovation hubs, and 14 disciplines in the ESI global top 1%.

NMU’s International Partnership page lists 54 partner institutions, weighted towards North America — 13 in the United States, including Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, UCLA and the University of Michigan, and 4 in Canada, including the University of Toronto — with partners in the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Scandinavia, Germany, Russia and South Asia. International cooperation is handled by the Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges; international students are admitted and taught through the School of International Education.

NMU does not publish employment or licensing-exam statistics for its international graduates. For MBBS students, the practical career step is the sixth-year hospital internship; what happens after graduation depends on your home country’s licensing rules for a foreign medical degree, which NMU’s admission notice does not address — check them with your national medical regulator before you apply. The School of International Education nominates outstanding international graduates and interns each year (the 2026 list was posted in May 2026) and runs a student "recruitment ambassador" programme.

Most international students live on the Jiangning campus in the south of Nanjing, where MBBS students spend their first four years; the fifth MBBS year and most clinical graduate study are on the Wutai campus in the city, and MPH students are based at Jiangning. The Jiangning international student dormitory houses more than 500 students, with separate male and female buildings, electronic access control, 24-hour surveillance and front desk, and an 11 pm curfew for undergraduates. Electricity, water and central air conditioning are free and rooms are cleaned daily; each floor has a common kitchen with microwaves, induction cookers and hot-water boilers, and the building has laundry areas, activity rooms, a ground-floor grocery store and the international student affairs office. Undergraduates may apply to live off campus from year two; graduate students may live off campus throughout.

Accommodation

Dining

The Jiangning campus has four dining halls in the First to Fourth Canteens Building with vegetarian and non-vegetarian food, three mini supermarkets, three cafés and a bakery, plus the Dongyuan Canteen Building with a halal canteen on its second floor. NMU’s FAQ confirms there is a halal canteen on both the Jiangning and Wutai campuses.

Facilities

Reach the Office of Admissions and Recruitment, School of International Education, Nanjing Medical University for questions about applications, documents, scholarships and arrival. Type university programs and offices are based on campus in Nanjing.