Starting 2018, The Ministry of Health and Family welfare has decided that National Eligibility cum Entrance Test would be a prerequisite for all medical aspirants, wanting to study abroad. The ministry has also suggested that the aspirants who fail to clear NEET will not be given the Essentiality Certificate (EC) which is mandate for medical admissions abroad as well as the No Objection Certificate (NOC), without which they will not be able to practice in India after their course.
NEET is a conclusive entrance exam for admissions into medical & dental UG courses all over India. All the top medical institutions, government as well as private, take into account NEET scores for admission in MBBS/BDS courses. Application schedule for NEET 2018is yet to be announced on the official website.
NEET UG is expected to be conducted in the first week of May 2018. The exam will be available in 11 different languages - Hindi, English, Urdu, Gujarati, Marathi, Odiya, Bengali, Assamese, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada.
As per the Indian Medical Council Act, 2001 students with Medical UG Degrees obtained from foreign universities need to clear the FMGE screening test conducted twice a year, with a minimum of 50%, before doing a one-year internship in an MCI-recognized medical college.
Vice-President of Medical Council of India,Dr CV Bhirmanandham has directed that the medical aspirants who fail National Eligibility cum Entrance Test will neither be allowed to sit for FMGE, nor will be registered by medical councils as doctors.
This move is anticipated to ensure that only meritorious students are allowed to go abroad for further studies. Most of the Medical Institutes abroad do not have Entrance tests to their medical programs. Hence the quality and caliber of students to qualify for medical admissions is not assessed before considering their candidature. This is reflected by the poor percentage of foreign medical graduates who clear the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) post completion of their course abroad.
FMGE is an exam that Indian students who have studied in foreign universities need to clear before obtaining a license to practice in India. The pass percentage in the last five years varies from a meagre 13.09 to 26.9 percent. These dismal numbers can be due to the quality of medical education imparted in some countries and also due to the fact, that students have faced hardly any competition before, due to lack of entrance tests. Hence in order to curb such suboptimal performance by students, mandating NEET seems like a good decision.
It is very discouraging for a student, who has completed years of medical education, invested a hefty sum of money in a foreign university but due to non-clearance of FMGE is not able to practice medicine, despite all his efforts. Thus mandating NEET will help in streamlining medical education, by ensuring that only deserving candidates gain admission to foreign universities. Hence, when they do come back they are able to crack FMGE and make use of their time and effort.
The only flip side to this would be that the introduction of NEET would make it much more difficult to gain admission to universities abroad. Students will have to face inordinate amount of competition as compared to the previous admission process. This would mean increased pressure on medical candidates. Also, using NEET as a criterion to determine FMGE’s outcomes cannot be a full proof move, as there would be a considerable time gap of several years between the two exams. The student will have years of medical education on him, where he may have learned and gained considerable amount of knowledge, or even unlearned some. Thus the fate of FMGE cannot be deduced through NEET, an exam, appeared for, several years ago.