This Article is From Feb 23, 2018

New NEET Foreign Courses Rule Does Not Apply To Current Students: Health Ministry

Students who have already taken admission under current regulations to pursue primary medical course in foreign institutes by taking Eligibility Certificate from MCI are exempted from qualifying NEET.

New NEET Foreign Courses Rule Does Not Apply To Current Students: Health Ministry

The decision will be implemented prospectively i.e. from May-2018, said Health Ministry

New Delhi: Students who have already taken admission under current regulations to pursue primary medical course in foreign institutes by taking Eligibility Certificate from MCI are exempted from qualifying NEET, said a statement from Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the common national level entrance exam conducted for admission to medical courses, was made mandatory recently for pursuing MBBS medical course abroad. Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has approved the proposal of Medical Council of India (MCI) to amend the Screening Test Regulations, 2002, making it mandatory to qualify NEET to pursue foreign medical courses.

After making the decision was made public, the Health Ministry has received grievances of the students requesting that the students who have already gone abroad may be exempted from the requirement of qualifying NEET. 

"In this context," the statement from the ministry said, "it is informed that the regulations prescribe that the Indian Citizens / Overseas Citizen 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 decision will be implemented prospectively i.e. from May-2018. Thus, students who have already taken admission under current regulations to pursue primary medical course by taking Eligibility Certificate from MCI are exempted from qualifying NEET," it said.

The MCI proposal came after it was brought to the government's notice that medical institutions and Universities of foreign countries admit Indian students without proper assessment or screening of the students' academic ability to cope up with medical education with the result that many students fail to qualify the Screening Test.

Every year, around 7,000 students go outside India to study medicine. Most of the students go to China and Russia.

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