NEW DELHI: The government on Friday decided to reduce the cut-off percentile for postgraduate medical seats by 15 per cent after a number of medical colleges, mostly private, complained that thousands of seats were going vacant this year due to the high qualifying percentile.
The move to reduce qualifying marks for postgraduate and super-speciality medical course has been taken for the second year in a row.
Admission to postgraduate seats in medical colleges in India is based on the National Eligibility and Entrance Test-PG (NEET-PG).
The decision is likely to benefit about 18,000 students as this will improve their chances of filling up postgraduate seats and minimizing wastage of seats, the government said in a statement. “This is a significant step towards strengthening the medical sector and indicates the priority given by the government to the health sector,” said Union Health and Family Welfare Minister JP Nadda, following the decision.
“We are making sure that there is adequate manpower for providing quality health services.”
As per existing regulations, for admission in any postgraduate course, it’s necessary for a candidate to obtain a minimum of marks at 50th percentile in NEET PG, while students belonging to reserved categories need to secure minimum marks at the 40th percentile.
Persons with disabilities, on the other hand, have to secure marks at the 45th percentile.
Officials said that the National Board of Examination had conducted NEET-PG 2018 on January 7, 2018, and the results of the same were declared by January 31. This year, NEET-SS will be conducted by the NBE in the first week of July 2018 as a computer-based test on a single day.
Last year, the government had reduced the cut-off percentile by 7.5 to fill up vacant postgraduate and super-speciality seats.