Common counselling for PG medical seats

October 09, 2016 12:00 am | Updated November 01, 2016 11:44 pm IST - BENGALURU:

‘Move will save students from applying to many colleges’

In a move that has come as a huge relief to medical postgraduate seat aspirants, the State government has decided to conduct common counselling for entry to all medical colleges except deemed universities.

Counselling is likely to be held in the second half of January, and the test is scheduled between December 5 and 13. Earlier this year, undergraduate medical aspirants had suffered endless problems because there was no common counselling and this meant they had to apply to multiple counselling agencies.

Medical Education Director Sachidananda S. said the State government had decided to conduct common counselling for PG medical seats using the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) scores. NEET PG will be the single entrance test for all postgraduate courses. “The process will make it smooth for aspirants who are vying for MD, MS and PG diploma courses,” he said. But, he said the logistics and modalities will still have to be worked out.

Meanwhile, sources said the State will urge UGC to direct all deemed universities in Karnataka to hold one common counselling.

During the undergraduate NEET counselling held last month, several students had questioned the purpose of NEET as there were multiple counselling sessions. “Besides signing up for counselling conducted by the Karnataka Examinations Authority for government and government-quota seats, students also had to sign up with COMEDK for seats in private colleges, different private minority college managements association, and close to a dozen deemed universities. What was the point of a single NEET then?” a parent of a medical aspirant pointed out.

In fact, last month the UGC had also directed deemed universities to fall in line, and fill their seats using the common counselling conducted by the State government. However, deemed universities said it was too late to join the counselling process.

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