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Upon receipt of the registration fee the Applicant will receive:
Before Applying
- It is strongly suggested that you contact your country representatives before you apply for COSECSA training.
- You must have read the regulations (MCS regulations here, FCS regulations here), meet the entry requirements as laid out in the regulations, and understand and agree to all regulations in these documents.
- You must have a passport style photo ready to be uploaded (in .jpg or .png format).
- You must have a scanned images of your medical degree and medical registration certificate ready to be uploaded (in .jpg .png or .pdf format).
- If applicable, you must have a scanned image of any surgical qualifications you have (in .jpg .png or .pdf format).
If your application is accepted you will need to pay the programme entry fee before you are registered as a COSECSA candidate. This can be paid online or in cash to one of your country representatives. The programme entry fee is US$500 for MCS candidates and $600 for FCS candidates.
Exam Year that you are Eligible for
As part of this process the secretariat records the date of registration of the candidate. COSECSA is now implementing a system whereby only a candidate’s experience post registration with COSECSA is considered. Therefore MCS candidates must register 2 years before their exam and FCS General Surgery, Orthopaedics, Plastics, Paediatrics, Otorhinolaryngology and Urology candidates must register 3 years before the exam. FCS Neurosurgery candidates must register 4 years before the exam. The deadline for registration is the end of February for that calendar year’s experience to be counted towards their training period.
Example 1
A candidate for the 2017 MCS exam must register by end of February 2016. For the same exam date an FCS candidate (for all FCS programmes except for FCS Neurosurgery) must register by end of February 2015 and FCS Neurosurgery candidates must register by end of February 2014. For candidates registering from March 1st onward, the year in which they register will only be considered a partial year in terms of completing their training period. Therefore an MCS candidate registered in March 2016 will only be eligible to sit the MCS exam in 2018.
The only exception to the above is that applicants with an MMed (Surgery) qualification, may register to sit the FCS exam in the year following their completion of MMed training. Candidates must complete a minimum of 1 year of COSECSA approved training in a COSECSA accredited hospital, under supervision of a COSECSA accredited trainer after completing their MMed training. Candidates must complete all e-learning requirements for this year of COSECSA training and produce a logbook for the entire length of their MMed and COSECSA training period.
Example 2
A candidate who completed their four-year Mmed training in 2016, may register for the 2017 FCS exam. The candidate needs to be register with COSECSA by the end of February 2017.