Medical admissions to private Maha colleges to be based on NEET

MUMBAI: The admissions to 3,395 seats in private medical colleges and deemed institutes in Maharashtra will be conducted through a centralised admission process

MUMBAI: The admissions to 3,395 seats in private medical colleges and deemed institutes in Maharashtra will be conducted through a centralised admission process based on the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) scores.

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The circulars with details on the admission procedure were released by the state common entrance test (CET) cell and the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) on Sunday evening.

The application process will be conducted from August 21 to August 24.

The circular states the process will cover all seats, excluding the institutional quota seats in deemed institutes.

“Students can start applying for admissions. A schedule should be announced soon,” said Chandrasekhar Oak, state CET cell commissioner.

While admissions to MBBS and BDS courses in government-run institutes were conducted last month on the basis of MH-CET scores, private and deemed institutes were waiting for NEET results, which were announced on August 17.

The problem that students faced was that with no mention of deemed institutes in the final Supreme Court order, many institutes in the state were planning to conduct their own entrance tests for admissions, which students and parents protested against.

HT had previously written about the health ministry, through a circular, suggesting centralised admissions for both private and deemed institutes, the state government waited for a consult of the law department before giving a final nod to this process.

The news comes as relief to thousands of students in the state. “Until Sunday evening, a link on the DMER website said deemed institutes would be excluded from the admission process. We were dreading going through separate admission tests all over again. The new circular was put up after 9pm. It has cleared all our doubts,” said Ritu Agarwal, a student.