NEET mandatory for medical students aspiring foreign education

New Delhi, February 14: Making the future of the country strong and more robust, the Cabinet has taken a decision wherein the students who wish to pursue MBBS in foreign institutes will have to comply to the NEET exams on mandatory lines.

 

Presently the students who aspire to pursue a career in medical field in any government or private medical college have to clear National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) which came into existence in the year 2016.

The Union Health Ministry informed that the Indian students intending to obtain primary medical qualification from any medical institution outside India, on or after May 2018, will have to mandatorily qualify the NEET for admission to MBBS course.

The Medical Council of India proposal came into effect after it noticed that medical institutions of foreign countries admit Indian students without proper assessment or screening of the students' academic ability to cope up with medical education and as a result many students fail to qualify the screening test.

The official said that among those who go abroad to study medicine, around 12 to 15 per cent of the graduates manage to clear the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE), a licensure examination conducted by the Medical Council of India.

At present, a student who wishes to take up a medical course has to obtain an essentiality certificate from the MCI for admission in any medical college outside India. Every year, around 7,000 students go outside India to study medicine. Most of the students go to China and Russia.

Before this, Indian students were allowed to pursue medical education abroad and they have to qualify a screening test called Foreign Medical Graduates Exam for registration in India after obtaining primary medical qualification-MBBS overseas.

However the result of NEET will be deemed to be treated as the Eligibility Certificate for such persons, provided that they fulfill the eligibility criteria for admission to the MBBS course. NEET was introduced in 2016 for admission to government and private medical colleges in India.

Once the new proposal is approved, those aspiring to study medicine outside India will be given a No Objection Certificate (NOC) only if they clear NEET.