NMC Guidelines: No MBBS admission after August 30; NExT in December, January every year

NEW DELHI: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has asked universities to organise the admission process in such a way that first-year MBBS classes begin on August 1 of each year. It has also directed them to not register any student admitted beyond August 30. Any medical qualification granted to students obtaining admission after the last date for closure of admission (August 30) will not be recognised by NMC.

These are among the guidelines based on the Graduate Medical Education Regulation 2023 framed by the Under Graduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) in an 82 pages document. The GMER-23 guidelines were published on June 13. “These new guidelines shall be applicable to all the admission made in MBBS Course in a medical college in the academic year 2023-24,” NMC has said. The first year classes of the new batch of MBBS students are likely to begin from August 1, 2023.

The GMER-23 regulations were published in Indian Gazette on June 2 and were uploaded on the official NMC website - nmc.org.in – last Thursday. NMC had made the draft of GMER-23 public for comment on February 27. GMER-23 guidelines state that there shall be common counselling for admission to graduate courses in medicine for all medical institutions in India based on the merit list of the NEET-UG. However, this will be applicable from NEET UG 2024.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) which announced the NEET UG 2023 results on Tuesday said that NEET scores will be used for admission to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, veterinary, BSc Nursing and BSc Life Sciences programmes.

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), government of India will conduct the counselling for 15% All India Quota seats (AIQs) in state medical colleges, deemed universities, central universities, seats of ESIC and AFMC, BHU and AMU. Medical education directorates of states will fill 85% seats of state government colleges through NEET state counselling 2023.

MBBS curriculum 2023 and teaching

The period of four and half years MBBS course will be divided into three phases with first and second phases of 12 months each, and phase three will be of 30 months - part I of 12 months and part II of 18 months.

In the first professional year, MBBS students will be taught preclinical subjects Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Introduction to community medicine, humanities, Professional development including Attitude, Ethics and Communication (AETCOM) module, Family adoption programme through village outreach, Pandemic module and early clinical exposure.

The second professional year will consist of Pathology, Pharmacology, Microbiology, family visit under Community medicine, General Surgery, General medicine, Obstetrics and gynecology, professional development including AETCOM module, simulation-based learning and introduction to clinical subjects ensuring both alignment and all types of integration.

Third professional year part I MBBS students will be taught Forensic medicine and toxicology, Community medicine, Medicine and allied, Surgery and allied, Pediatrics and Obstetric and gynecology including AETCOM, Pandemic module. Clinical teaching in General Medicine. General Surgery, Obstetrics and gynecology, Pediatrics, Orthopedics, Dermatology, Community medicine, Psychiatry, Respiratory medicine. Radio-diagnosis, Anesthesiology and Professional development.

MBBS students of third professional year part II will study Medicine and allied specialties, Surgery and allied specialties, Obstetrics and gynecology (including Family Welfare), Pediatrics and AETCOM module.

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Each academic year will have at least 39 teaching weeks with a minimum of eight hours of working on each day including one hour as lunch break. A total of 15 hours per week clinical posting is necessary from second year onwards.

“Didactic lectures shall not exceed one third of the schedule; two third of the schedule shall include interactive sessions, practicals, clinical or/and group discussions. The learning process should include clinical experiences, problem- oriented approach. case studies and community health care activities,” the NMC GMER-2023 guidelines say.

MBBS examinations

There shall be a minimum of 75% attendance in theory and 80% in practical or clinical for eligibility to appear for the examinations in that subject. Students who do not have at least 75% attendance in the electives will not be eligible for the Third professional part II examination or National Exit Test (NExT) examination.

Students failing university examinations at the end of each professional year will appear in supplementary exams.

The GMER guidelines say that supplementary examinations and declaration of results shall be processed within three to six weeks from the date of declaration of the results of the main examination for every professional year, so that the candidates, who pass, can join the main batch for progression.

“If the candidate fails in the supplementary examination of first year MBBS, he shall join the batch of next academic year or subsequent year. There shall be no supplementary batches. Partial attendance of examination in any subject shall be counted as an attempt,” says the NMC’s GMER 23 guidelines document.

A candidate who fails in the first professional examination, will “not be allowed to join the second professional”. However, a candidate who fails in the second professional examination will be allowed to join the third professional part I training, but “he will not be allowed to appear for the examination unless he has passed the second professional examination”, the commission’s guidelines say.

Further, a candidate who fails in the third professional part I examination will be allowed to join third professional part II training, “however he will not be allowed to appear for the examination unless he has passed second professional examination,” GMER-23 guidelines said.

A candidate shall obtain 50% marks in university conducted examination separately in theory and in practical in order to be declared as passed in that subject.

Except for the third professional Part II examination, all examinations will be conducted by respective universities. The university-level examination will be held in the month of July each year.

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NExT exam

Third professional Part II examination will be NExT and will be conducted at the end of 17 or 18th month of that training in the subjects of General medicine, General Surgery, Ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology, Obstetrics and gynecology, Pediatrics and allied subjects as per NExT regulations.

MBBS students of 2023-23 batch will be sitting for NExT examination in December 2027 or January 2028, according to the academic calendar issued by UGMEB in the guidelines document. NExT will be conducted in December or January of every year.

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Under GMER, NMC has also reduced the maximum duration of completion of MBBS course from 10 years to nine years.