New Delhi: The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is a new qualifying cum entrance examination for admission to undergraduate medical and dental courses as well as for the post graduate courses for the academic year 2016—17.
Though the Supreme Court mandated that seats in all government and private medical colleges will have to be filled only through NEET-2, to be held on July 24, the Centre by an ordinance has exempted States from the purview of NEET.
Some States like Delhi and Central universities as well as AIIMS will admit students on NEET score.
In Tamil Nadu as there is a law abolishing entrance tests, admission for this year will be made on the basis of marks in government medical colleges. However, all private medical and dental colleges have been brought under NEET and admission of students has to be made only through NEET marks. For private colleges and deemed universities, they will have to accept application from candidates all over India and prepare their own merit list based on all India ranking of NEET. A total of about 27,000 seats are available for admission in private medical and dental colleges through NEET marks and ranking to be prepared by the respective private medical college. But the fees structure of the private colleges will not change.
What is the necessity for NEET: In India admission in private medical colleges is a business with over Rs 20,000 crores being collected by way of capitation fees and the Centre and Medical Council of India found large scale irregularities in admission. Therefore through NEET it was intended to have a single entrance exam for all medical aspirants in India. According to the Central government a single window test is far more transparent and fair than one that is devised by the private colleges which have no mechanism of any checks and balances.
Till now admission to the government seats was done through national state level entrance exams and private colleges either individually or through their associations have been conducting separate entrance tests. There were over 25 such different Medical Entrance Examinations in India for admission into various Government and Private Medical Colleges. On an average a student appeared in 7-9 entrance exams, thereby causing hardships.
The All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) for the 15 per cent all India quota seats in government medical colleges was held on May 1. The Centre has now converted this test as NEET-1. Besides this, NEET-2 will be held on July 24 and this can be taken by all candidates irrespective of their appearance in AIPMT/NEET-1 Candidates who will appear in NEET-2 have to give up their NEET-1 score. The result for both the phases will be declared on August 17.
Based on the marks scored by candidates, CBSE will prepare merit list of the eligible and successful candidates. Based on the rank in merit list counseling will be conducted by Medical Counseling Committee (MCC) for admission under 15 per cent all India quota seats for MBBS and BDS programmes. As government colleges are not participating in NEET, the rank list will be prepared only for those States which have opted for NEET. Private medical colleges will prepare their own rank list based on the applicable quota and admit students based on the ranking. All admission processes will have to be completed by September 30, 2016.
