Common entrance test for MBBS aspirants from next year

Kounteya Sinha, TNN Jul 20, 2011, 12.44am IST I Times of India

NEW DELHI: Come next academic session, students seeking to get into a medical school will have to appear for a Common Entrance Test (CET).

The Union health ministry and the Medical Council of India (MCI) have reached a consensus to roll out CET for admission to all government, private medical colleges and deemed universities for MBBS course from the 2012-13 academic session.

MCI officials confirmed this to TOI, saying the decision was taken in a meeting on Monday, chaired by Union health secretary K Chandramouli. The meeting was also attended by officials of MCI and CBSE.

About 8-10 lakh students are likely to appear for the maiden CET exam. Mr Chandramouli told TOI that they "are working out the modalities". In the meeting, there was also talk about bringing institutes like AIIMS under CET's ambit.

Hence, AIIMS won't be able to hold its own undergraduate entrance exam. "The top students can choose to join AIIMS. However, more discussions will be held on this matter. The idea is to have one single medical entrance exam in the country," an official said.

The new MCI governing board is taking a fresh look at the revised medical curriculum, prepared by its predecessors. "We will finalize India's revised medical education curriculum, and put it up on our website for public comments soon," an MCI governing body member told TOI.

Ministry sources said the entrance exam will be held for MBBS courses offered by all 271 medical colleges — 138 run by governments and 133 under private management.

These colleges offer over 31,000 MBBS seats. Now, about 17 entrance tests are held to fill 32, 000 UG seats in medical colleges across the country.

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From next yr, common medical test
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 19
In a far-reaching decision, the Ministry of Health, Medical Council of India and the CBSE have agreed to conduct a common all-India entrance test for admission to all medical colleges across the country from next year.
From 2012, the CBSE will conduct the proposed common medical entrance test for entry to all private and government medical colleges in India (close to 300 colleges of which about 180 are private).
Close to 8 lakh students take UG medical entrance tests annually but at present they sit for different tests, including the All India PMT which the CBSE conducts and various state-level medical entrance tests. The decision now is that the CBSE will hold one test; it has the experience of conducing the largest entrance test in India - AIEEE for engineering entrance which close to 11 lakh students take every year.
A common test will ensure uniformity in UG medical education across states where private colleges are in the practice of charging exorbitant sums for admitting students. This arbitrariness in UG medical admissions has resulted in seats being sold and purchased.
The MCI will prepare the course structure for the test and put it on the website for comments of people, said MCI BOG member DR Purushottam Lal. The decision, he said, came in the wake of the Supreme Court orders to the MCI to go ahead with one test for UG medical admissions to avoid stress to students.
One test will ensure quality students entering medical education because states would be obliged to fill seats in their respective jurisdictions with students who figure in the All-India merit list. They would be free to prefer students from their areas but they won’t be able to compromise on merit.

Earlier Tamil Nadu had opposed the move and secured a stay on it from the High Court. The Health Ministry subsequently asked the MCI to withdraw the common entrance test notification but the Supreme Court told the MCI to go ahead. At the latest meeting which Health Secretary attended, the view was that state governments would be roped in to build a consensus on the matter.