Common Entrance Test for MBBS aspirants from next year
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.
