NMC Revises Age Criteria, Tie-Breaking Rules for Medical Entrance Exam

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has changed the minimum age requirement for candidates taking the National Eligibility cum Entry Test for Undergraduate (NEET-UG). To be eligible to apply for the NEET UG, candidates must have completed the age of 17, on or before January 31 of the year of admission to UG medical courses, according to the newly-notified Graduate Medical Education Regulations (GMER-23) released on June 2. Previously, the deadline for calculating the minimum eligibility age was December 31 of the admission year. The updated guidelines will be in effect beginning with NEET UG 2024.

Candidates opting for MBBS, BDS, and AYUSH programmes must have completed their 10+2 (or its equivalent) with physics, chemistry, biology or biotechnology, and English in order to be eligible for the NEET UG. These changes to the eligibility were released through a gazette.

In the GMER-23 norms, NMC informed that if there is a tie in the NEET UG marks, the individual scores in physics, chemistry, and biology will be taken into consideration, in that order. In the event of a tie, the draw lots will be used to pick the qualified applicants, with no human involvement.

Furthermore, all medical institutions will use a common counselling process based on the NEET UG merit list for admission to graduate medical programmes, according to the new norms. The designated authority must submit the final list of students to the Undergraduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) within a week of its completion.

The UGMEB will issue instructions for conducting counselling. Every medical institution must also give the UGMEB the final list of accepted students within a week of the course’s last day for enrolment.

“The UGMEB is responsible for publishing the model curriculum and outcome objectives on the NMC website, which will serve as the foundation for the development of detailed medical curricula by respective universities. Additional choice-based credit courses of limited duration will be offered alongside the NMC curriculum,” the regulation further mentioned.

A UG medical student must complete a rotating medical internship in accordance with the Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship Regulations (CRMI), 2021, in order to be deemed a graduate, the regulation added.