CHENNAI: Admissions to all medical colleges, including private and deemed universities, will be conducted through a State-level common counselling on merit based on the marks obtained by aspirants in the National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test.
A notification dated March 10 by the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has made it mandatory for all State governments to conduct the common counselling for admission in MBBS and post graduate medical courses like MS and MD. This comes into effect from the coming academic year admissions. It means all Class 12 students passing out this year must appear for NEET, if they aspire to study MBBS in any college or deemed university in the State. There is still much opposition in Tamil Nadu over making NEET mandatory for medical admissions. But with few options left to legally challenge the Central government’s move, it seems taking NEET is now compulsory for MBBS aspirants.
“There shall be no exemption from the common counselling and all institutions, including private medical colleges/deemed universities shall be covered under it,” said a letter dated March 10 of a Union ministry official to Principal Secretaries of all State governments. While introduction of NEET is facing much political opposition, a section of experts welcome the common merit-based counselling and said this will end exorbitant fee for MBBS courses charged by private medical colleges and deemed universities. “This will put an end to sale of seats by private colleges.
Presently, private colleges arbitrarily fix the fees based on each student who approaches them for a seat. A common counselling will streamline the admission process and the fee,” said C V Bhirmanandam, Vice-President of Medical Council of India. He said the admissions in private medical colleges will also be based only on merit and private colleges will not be able to sell the seats.
L P Thangavel, past president of Tamil Nadu unit of the Indian Medical Association, said the common counselling was a welcome move and the best thing for the student community as it ensured merit-based admissions for all medical seats. While the common medical admissions may do away with donations and capitation fee that private colleges demand, he said governments should take steps to safeguard the interests of private colleges. “Fees must be fixed by the government for private colleges by taking into consideration the expenditures incurred by them,” said Thangavel.
However, the recent notification amending the two laws that govern admissions for MBBS and PG courses are silent on fees the medical colleges can collect. The Centre has made the amendments to the Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 1997 and the Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulation 2000, to make the State-level counselling compulsory. Admissions under the 15 per cent All India-quota in State government-run colleges will continue to be governed by Director-General of Health Services (DGHS), functioning under the Union Health Ministry, the letter said.
“So far, private medical colleges were not under the control of the government at all. The State government must implement this without delay,” said T Satva, who is aspiring to join a post-graduate medical course and hopes the new system will end the exorbitant fees collected by private colleges.