From next year, NEET compulsory for admissions into AIIMS and JIPMER too

Starting 2020, there would be just one entrance test to get admission into all medical colleges in the country including All India Institutes of Medical Sciences in various parts of the country as well as Jawaharlal Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry.

At present, admissions to medical colleges in the country, except AIIMS and JIPMER are carried out through the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test. The two premier set of institutions-AIIMS and JIPMER directly under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare-however were allowed to carry out their separate entrance tests. These two admission tests were regarded as tougher than NEET, conducted by the National Testing Agency.

As the National Medical Commission-the new medical education regulator to replace the Medical Council of India-has now started taking shape after the NMC Act was promulgated recently, the Union health ministry has decided to scrap the other two entrance tests. "NEET score will be valid for admission into all medical colleges in India starting next academic session," said a senior official in the medical education section of the ministry.

There are about 15 AIIMS in the country now which offer undergraduate course-14 of them developed on the line of AIIMS, New Delhi which is regarded as the best medical college in India. In all, there are about 1,500 MBBS seats at AIIMS as of now but the government is hoping to get academic activities started at at least three more by 2020.

"As there are nearly 85,000 MBBS seats available for admission through NEET now, we are hoping to take this number by past 90,000 next year when NMC comes into function," another official said. Officials also said that with just one entrance test for all medical colleges, it will be easy to rank the institutions-particularly second generation AIIMS in various cities-based on student perception and choice of college.