Updated on: Wednesday, July 07, 2010
The Medical Council of India (MCI) plans to introduce a common entrance exam for all medical colleges - public or private - for both undergraduate and post graduate courses, possibly as early as 2011.
From 2011, those who aspire to become doctors in the country will not have to worry about giving as many entrance tests as possible to get admission to a medical college, modalities of which will be finalised in the next two weeks.
The MCI has plans to set up a nationwide common entrance test (CET) for study of medicine in both government and private colleges.
Such an examination will replace the 17 medical entrance examinations currently existing in the country. As of now, a student aspiring to be a doctor has to sit for at least five to six entrance examinations to get a chance to study in a medical college.
The new CET may be in place from the 2011-12 academic session if the MCI plan gets approved. The Central Board of Secondary Education will be conducting the all-India tests, for admitting 32,000 undergraduate and 13,000 postgraduate students. “The MCI has in principle agreed for a CET at UG and PG levels in the coming years,†Shiv Kumar Sarin, chairman of the MCI board, said here on Tuesday. “Once a CET is in place, it will no longer matter what economic background you come from if you have the merit. This will change the health education scenario here,†said Sarin, a professor at the G B Pant Hospital in Delhi.
Students will have to apply separately to every college in accordance with their preferences, be it AIIMS, PGI Chandigarh or a private medical college, after taking the exam. A student will need to score in order to get admissions to the colleges of choice.