Nagpur: Now admission to all deemed universities for medical studies in Maharashtra, such as the Datta Meghe Medical College at Sawangi, Wardha, will be based on the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) results. This was decided at a meeting of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Minister for Higher and Medical Education Girish Mahajan late Sunday evening. This had added cheer to the aspiring Doctors since it brings 1,800 medical seats in the deemed universities under NEET. Education Minister said they aimed to put an end to rampant commercialization of medical education that put medical education beyond the pale of the poor. It would also standardize the entrance procedures.
Mahajan said, “The decision to enforce NEET in all deemed universities was to streamline entrance test for medical admissions. It will bring great relief to students as decisions will be merit based.” Till now, all Entrance tests under deemed universities were exempted from NEET. Each university followed its own common entrance test causing inconvenience to students who had to file separate forms and appear for multiple entrance tests.
Stating that medical education had gone beyond the reach of meritorious but poor students, sources in the government said the decision was a big step towards ending the monopoly of a handful of powerful education barons. As per the decision, the government has allowed 85 per cent of the 1,800 medical seats to be filled through NEET on the basis of merit, leaving just 15 per cent admissions through management quota. The government also laid down guidelines to ensure selection of students through merit is not compromised.
Explaining the new system, Dr. Dilip Wankar who is part of the management of private Medical College Lata Mangeshkar at Wanadongri, explained that Medical colleges of the state could be divided into three categories:
- Government run Medical colleges like GMC and IGMC in Nagpur. They are covered under MUHS, Nasik. They have been allowed to admit students as per the state Entrance exams (MHT-CET) for this year. “The first lot of admissions in Govt. colleges have already taken place” confirmed Dr. Sanjay Kubde, Professor at GMC.
- Completely private Medical colleges that are not deemed Universities and fall under MUHS. They have already decided to admit students under NEET from this year.
- Deemed Medical Universities like Bharatiya Vidyapeeth Pune, D.Y. Patil Medical College and Sawangi College of Meghes. They had filed a writ petition demanding that they be allowed to admit students as per their own Entrance tests – which was the procedure they were following till now. Later the Supreme Court had struck down this petition and directed that NEET be followed uniformly. The Maharashtra Goverment had then pleaded for admissions according to NEET to be held in abeyance for one more year. Now they have changed their position.
More on admission procedures:
Of the 85% students admitted by NEET, 70% students will be by Regional Quota. 12.5% seats will be alloted to All India merit list and 2.5% will be reserved for ‘Special Category’ such as physically handicapped, Defense quota etc.
The limit for filling online applications is 5 p.m. August 24th.
