Final-year students and teachers across the country’s medical colleges are confused. In 2020, the government introduced the National Exit Test (NExT) to medical education. It is to be a common final-year exit test, compulsory for securing a license to practice. In a July 2021 notification, the medical education regulator, NMC, said that the test would be conducted in the first half of 2023 and that there would be a mock test before it to get students used to the pattern.
Since July last year, colleges have heard nothing further about it.
“We are not sure if NexT exam is happening in 2023 There is no proper notification. We are going ahead with the conventional professional exam pattern,” said Seema Mondal, professor, ESI Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences and Research in Joka, Kolkata, West Bengal who teaches undergraduate students.
The NMC replaced the Medical Council of India in 2019; the law passed to set it up provides for the NExT. Once implemented, NExT will serve both as a licensing exam for graduating students and an entrance exam for postgraduate programmes in medicine. Graduating students will get their degrees only once they clear the NExT. It will also serve as a licensing exam for students who have earned their undergraduate medical degrees abroad, replacing the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE).
NEXT Pattern: The rumours
In the absence of an official timeline or guidelines, there are rumours, gossips and fleeting social media posts.
Bu hikaye Careers 360 dergisinin August 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Careers 360 dergisinin August 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
The 50 colleges in 5 countries where most Indians go for MBBS abroad
Data on countries and colleges from the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE) 2022 - the latest available - shows that most Indians who completed medical degrees abroad and wrote the FMGE went to five countries.
Foreign medical colleges: Look before you leap
A close look at foreign medical colleges that thousands of Indians have graduated from shows that many are unaccredited, don’t have hospitals or even their own websites
'Either I clear FMGE or leave the country'
After spending lakhs on MBBS degrees abroad, thousands spend years trying to clear the FMGE. That is the only option for Indian graduates of foreign medical colleges to build a career in India
Why hundreds of nursing graduates leave India each year
There has been an increase in nursing institutes over the past two decades but policy gaps, lax regulations, poor pay and opportunities are pushing a large number of nursing staff to seek opportunities abroad
In Kashmir, why NEET and JEE candidates flock to private reading halls to prepare for exams
These are accessible round-the-clock, even on public holidays, have private cabins and booths, kitchen, discussion area and some, even places for napping
Battling despair and depression in medical school
Long hours, bullying, lack of support make a difficult programme tougher for medical students. They hope for clear guidelines from the NMC
This father-daughter duo uncovered a scam in NEET admissions in West Bengal
Several generalcategory students had secured admission in medical colleges with forged ST certificates. Ishita Soren spotted the names, and her father followed up
'Forced to take up bonded labour
There's massive resistance to a state policy in Karnataka that requires even private medical college graduates to do one year's mandatory rural service
‘A routine circus': PG medical students lobby, move court to get stipends
Despite NMC orders, many medical colleges still seriously underpay resident doctors and threaten them into silence. In government colleges, stipends can be delayed for months
Why Mizoram wants centre to take over its only medical college
Mizoram got its first state medical college in 2018. In 2023, it asked the union government to take over. Mixed up in this are questions of funding, MBBS seat distribution
