The deadline for MBBS students to apply for internships in order to be eligible to take the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Postgraduation (NEET PG) has been extended until June 30.
The National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), which conducts the NEET PG, has announced an extension of the internship cut-off date for NEET PG aspirants. This decision comes after protests from students, resident doctors associations and the Indian Medical Association, who argued that the earlier cut-off date of March 30 would make a significant number of candidates from certain states ineligible for the exam due to delays in the start of their mandatory one-year internships. The extension was granted by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, according to the NBEMS notification.
As of now, the NEET PG 2023 applications are open and the test is set for March 5, 2023. However, students are also requesting for the test date to be pushed back in addition to the extension of the internship cut-off date.
The original notification stated that only candidates who finished their mandatory one-year internship by March 31, 2023, were eligible to take the NEET PG 2023 examination. This was intended to standardize the NEET-PG admission process. However, students argued that due to the impact of COVID-19 and other academic setbacks, more than half of the current group of interns did not begin their internships until April or later. As a result, it was projected that 80-85% of students from the 2017 batch would not meet the eligibility requirements for the test.
