General Surgery EBSQ Exam
General Surgery

General Surgery
EBSQ Examination

Next EBSQ Examination

Examination datePlaceApplication deadline
11th to 13th of September 2024Ghent (Belgium)31st May

All candidates – including new candidates and those who postponed or failed previously – must apply through the QuizOne platform accessible through the buttons below
We do not accept any document as support to applications by any means other than uploaded on the dedicated web-platform. Documents received by any other means will not be considered as part of an application.

Please note that once the deadline date to apply is passed, no application will be acceptable by any means.

Before clicking the “Apply” button, please carefully read the EBSQ policies and Eligibility criteria and ensure that you are ready to submit all required documents.

Please also ensure that you pay the fees before the deadlines.

Places are limited. Do not wait until last minute to finalise your application as places will be offered on a first come, first serve basis from date of application completion.

Candidates are responsible for their own application and its follow-up. Checking up regularly emails, and junk emails, is highly recommended – the UEMS Section of Surgery will not be responsible for any missed information sent via email.


We kindly encourage applicants to submit their documents and payment as early as possible.

You wish to apply to the EBSQ Examination in General Surgery for the first time or you were assessed as not eligible in a previous attempt to participate to the exam.
You are a new candidate. Please click below:

You didn’t succeed once in a previous session of EBSQ Examination in General Surgery and you want to give it another try?
Please click below:

You were assessed eligible in a previous session of EBSQ Examination in General Surgery, you were not able to attend the Examination and you want to attend the next session?
Please click below:

Fellowship of the European Board of Surgery

To apply for certification as Fellow of the European Board of Surgery (FEBS) in the specialty of General Surgery offered by the “European Board of Surgery” and the “Division of General Surgery”, a candidate has to undergo a two-step quality validation process:  Eligibility (Part I) and Examination (Part II).

A candidate successfully passing the Eligibility and Examination will be qualified as: Fellow of the European Board of Surgery (FEBS) in General Surgery.

The Fellowship of the UEMS is a significant high-level indication of professional competence and excellence. It basically reflects the ongoing important European standardisation, harmonisation and quality assurance process in medicine.

At present, the fellowship of itself has no automatic legal recognition in the European Union or any other country. Individual recognition of qualifications by the national authorities is supported by the EBSQ committee and the number of countries officially adopting the Board exam is continuously rising. The future perspective of this European diploma is to be seen in unanimous legalization within the ongoing project of the European harmonization process of medical education.

The title does not in itself imply an automatic right to independent practice, nor does it automatically enhance participation in national social security systems of the European Union.

The candidate for the EBSQ title in General Surgery should be a future opinion leader in General Surgery.

Examination Committee and FEBS – RCSI (Dublin, Ireland) September 2023
Examination Committee and FEBS – RCSI (Dublin, Ireland) September 2021
Examination Committee and FEBS – Imperial College (London, UK) September 2022

Examination organisation & rules

Eligibility assessment

Application documents

Your application will be made of 10 documents.

The first 5 are to be downloaded from this website (templates hereunder), filled out then uploaded on the platform during the registration process.:

  • EBSQ General Surgery Application Form
  • Declaration of 2 trainers signed (within the Application Form)
  • EBSQ General Surgical Evidence of Competence Logbook, signed and stamped by supervisor
  • Completed updated CV
  • 2 recommendation letters
  • Commitment to abide by assessment regulations signed

The 5 remaining documents you must provide for your application are :

  • Primary Medical Qualification certificate
  • Medical registration certificate
  • Evidence of 6 post-graduate years of training
  • A consolidated documents for the Credit points with the evidences
  • A scan of your ID card or passport with your photo and your name in Latin letters

For details on the eligibility criteria and guidance, please download the following document:

Examination fees

The total fee for applying for the EBSQ Examination in General Surgery is €1,200:

  • €450 for the Eligibility Assessment
  • €750 for the Examination

Payments must be made via Paypal directly on the QuizOne platform dedicated to registrations before the deadline dates.

The eligibility fee is to be paid when the applicant registers for the exam.

The examination fee should be paid once the eligibility of the applicant has been confirmed, within two weeks following confirmation of selection, to finalise the registration for the examination.

All fees paid are non-refundable. The exam fee may be transferred to another exam sitting if more than 30 days’ notice is given.

For those who have been assessed eligible, you may postpone for up to 24 months without having to pass and pay the eligibility assessment again. After 24 months you must go through the eligibility assessment again.

Cancellation policy

Cancellation/Postponement up to 30 days before the exam:

  • Exam fees (if paid) postponed to next sitting + an admin charge of 90 euro will be charged when candidate re-apply for the exam.

Cancellation/Postponement less than 30 days before the exam:

  • Exam fees are not transferred to the next exam and not refundable.  When re-applying for the exam, the candidate must pay the exam fee again + 90 euros administration fee.

Reasonable cancellations within 30 days of the exam will be considered on a case by case basis at the discretion of the Board of Examination. Supporting documentation is required.

For those who have been assessed eligible, you may postpone for up to 24 months without having to pass and pay the eligibility assessment again. After 24 months you must go through the eligibility assessment again and pay its fee. 

All fees paid are non-refundable.

Re-issue of certificates

Fellows are responsible for their Certificates. New Certificates will not be re-issued in case of loss.

If there is an error on your certificate you must contact the office within 3 months of receiving the certificate to have the certificate reissued.

Confirmation of authenticity

Fellows of the European Board of Surgery (General Surgery), whether obtained through the EBSQ Examination or by Honorary conferment, may require confirmation of that their certificate is genuine.

Please read the following for more details on the confirmation of authenticity of your certificate:

Bursaries

A Gold certificate amounting to 1,000 euro will be awarded to the first placed candidate at each session of the ESBQ Examination.

Gold certificate was awarded to:
Hasham Akram Choudhary (UK) in 2021
Mohammed Qasim Abduljabbar (UK) in 2022
Anas Younes Belhasan (UK) in 2023

An EBSQ International Scholarship for candidates from least developed countries amounting to 1,000 euro each will be awarded to successful candidates on condition that their place of work and country of residence is listed as one on the most current United Nations (UN) list of least developed countries (LDC). A maximum of two bursaries are awarded to the two candidates who place best in the EBSQ Exam, if contested.

No International Scholarship has been granted yet.

The bursaries will be paid after the examination results are published.

The two bursaries (Gold certificate and International Scholarship) cannot be granted to the same person.

Examination format

After the Eligibility process, which is the first stage of the examination, candidates will be assessed over two days. There are two components:

  • Part 1: a written examination consisting of 150 Best answer-out-of-five (Type A) MCQs, lasting 3 hours.
  • Part 2: an oral examination consisting of a clinical exam with nine stations, each lasting 9 minutes (including change over time).

For details on the proportion of questions from each category that candidates will be asked in the examination, please download the Blueprint:

And, more specifically, regarding Part I of the examination (MCQ), here are the type of questions that may be asked :

For details on the organisation and the rules attached to the EBSQ examination in General Surgery, please carefully read the Frequently Asked Questions:

Becoming an examiner

New examiners not already in possession of the FEBS will be awarded the Honorary FEBS General Surgery. This Honorary Qualification is no longer conferred in response to a proposal or an application.
If you wish to become an examiner, please carefully read the following: