A common national entrance exam, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), has been made mandatory for admission to all medical courses in the country.
Academic ability
“Indian students can also pursue medical education abroad and have to qualify a screening test called Foreign Medical Graduates Exam [FMGE], for registration to practice in India after obtaining primary medical qualification [MBBS] overseas. It has come to notice that medical institutions / universities of foreign countries admit Indian students without proper assessment or screening of the students’ academic ability to cope with medical education with the result that many students fail to qualify the screening test,” said a Health Ministry release on Tuesday.
MCI proposal
It added that the proposal of the Medical Council of India (MCI) to amend the Screening Test Regulations, 2002, making it mandatory to qualify NEET to pursue foreign medical course has been approved by the Ministry.
With this new order, Indian citizens or overseas citizens of India intending to obtain primary medical qualification from any medical institution outside India, on or after May 2018, shall have to mandatorily qualify the NEET for admission to MBBS course abroad. “The result of NEET shall be deemed to be treated as the eligibility certificate for such persons, provided that such persons fulfil the eligibility criteria for admission to the MBBS course prescribed in the Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997,” added the Ministry.
