The National Exit Test (NExT) has been deferred until any further directions, as per a public notice released by the National Medical Commission (NMC) on their official website.

"All the stakeholders are hereby informed that the National Exit Test (NEXT) examination is deferred on the advice of the Ministry, dated 11.07.2023, till further directions from the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare," the notice dated Thursday, July 13 read.

The announcement comes after a series of protests across several medical colleges in India demanding the new examination to be repealed immediately citing several concerns.

So far…

The official announcement has also put an end to the question of whether or not the examination will be conducted for the 2019 batch or not. 

On July 6, few days after the NMC officially announced the introduction of NExT examination through a gazetted notification, Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya announced at a conference in AIIMS Raipur that NExT will not be implemented for the 2019 MBBS batch.

This statement created confusion among the medical community who demanded that an official notification be released clarifying the details about the examination.

Earlier, NMC had also conducted a webinar for all medical colleges across India announcing that the NExT exam will be conducted twice a year, in May and November, among several other details.