National Eligibility Entrance Test may be must for foreign medical course

CHENNAI: The Union health ministry may soon make the National Eligibility Entrance Test mandatory for students who travel abroad for undergraduate medical courses, Medical Council of India officials have said.

A ministry has suggested that students who do not clear NEET should not be given the 'no objection certificate' to study in foreign universities. "Without the no-objection certificate it will be impossible for students to practice in India. They will neither be allowed to sit for the screening examination nor be registered by medical councils as doctors," said MCI vice-president Dr CV Bhirmanandham. The council, the Chennai-based cardiologist said, was waiting for orders from the ministry on whether it should be implemented this academic year.

The move will also make the entry level qualification for medical education equal for all candidates. In April 2016, the Supreme Court made NEET mandatory for undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental admissions. "As of now we feel the quality of students who go abroad is not great because less than a quarter of students clear the screening test every year," he said.

The Indian Medical Council Act, 2001, mandates citizens with undergraduate degrees from outside India to clear the screening test conducted every June and December, with a 50% score, before doing a one-year internship in an MCI-recognised medical college. The number of students taking the test has doubled, but the pass percentage dropped from 50.12 in 2005 to 10.7 in 2015.

In this period, the pass rate fluctuated around 20%, dropping to an all-time low of 4.93% in June 2014, when only 293 students passed.