The apex regulator of medical education has fixed the academic calendar for all MBBS courses, with admission processes to be completed mandatorily by the end of August, according to recently released guidelines under the Graduate Medical Education Regulations 2023. Significantly, the regulations by the National Medical Commission (NMC) also do away with supplementary batches for those who fail their annual examination.
Published in the gazette earlier this month, the regulations call for common counselling. However, according to officials in the know of the matter, this will not happen for the current batch of students as the preparations are still underway.
Results for NEET-UG 2023 have already been declared and the counselling is slated to begin in July. “A new software will be needed for conducting common counselling. This is under process at the moment. Other than that, dialogue is going on between the Health Ministry and the states to bring the entire counselling process onto the same platform,” said the official.
At present, the central authority conducts counselling for 15 per cent of the MBBS seats, while state authorities do it for the remaining 85 per cent seats in their respective states. Counselling for 50 per cent of the PG seats is done by the central authority.
“States are likely to get on board because it is a good move for students. Currently, students have to register for central and state counselling separately, pay separate fees in every state they wish to apply in, and physically go to the states for the counselling. Common counselling will ensure that students would be able to apply for seats across the country on the same portal,” the official said.
The guidelines also say that if any student fails to clear the annual university exam, they may sit for a supplementary examination. The results of the same must be declared within three to six weeks of the results declaration of the main examination. Those who pass the supplementary exam will join the main batch, but for those who fail it there will be no supplementary batches; they will have to join the next batch, the guidelines state.
The 82-page guidelines under this regulation state that the admission process will commence on August 1 and will be wrapped up by August 30 “under any circumstance. The universities shall not register any student admitted beyond the said date.” It also mentions an academic calendar detailing when each part of the course will commence and when the examinations will be conducted. This has been done in an effort to synchronise the timelines of undergraduate medical courses across the country.
This is significant in light of the NMC planning to start the National Exit Test (NExT) from 2024. It will be a two-part test that will act as the MBBS final test, licentiate examination for registration of doctors to the medical councils, and as an admission test for PG courses.
Other than that, changes have also been made to Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) to integrate it better towards the set goals. “Take, for example, clinical ethics that the CBME introduced in 2019. It is a very important addition because our students were missing out on it. However, since the courses were not assigned to a particular department, they were not taken up very effectively. The current guidelines have assigned which department will teach which aspect,” said Dr Satendra Singh, professor at the University College of Medical Sciences.
Dr Singh added that the duration of the foundation course – to orient students to an MBBS course, the role of doctors in society, and a background on the history of medicine and national priorities – has been reduced from one month to a week.