BEIJING - The Working Committee for the Accreditation of Medical Education (WCAME), Ministry of Education, the agency that accredits medical education programs in China, has been awarded recognition status by the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME).

The move signals that China's medical education field has put in place standards and an accrediting system with international substantive equivalence, winning international recognition for its quality of medical education accreditation, according to the Ministry of Education.

A ministry official has hailed the WFME's awarding of recognition status to the WCAME as another milestone achievement for Chinese higher education.

Jointly founded by the World Health Organization and the World Medical Association, the WFME plays an important role in developing standards for medical education and promoting medical education reform.

Only when a medical education accrediting agency is recognized by the WFME can its accrediting decisions be recognized and graduates from its accredited medical schools be accepted by the global health sector, the ministry noted.