To make admissions from NEET rank list next year onwards

Admissions to medical, Ayush, agriculture, veterinary, fisheries and forestry courses would be made from the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) rank list from the academic year 2017-18 onwards.

This was decided at a Cabinet meeting here on Tuesday.

A press note here said the State government would not henceforth conduct entrance examinations to these courses. Admissions to the engineering courses would continue to be made from a rank list prepared on the basis of an entrance examination conducted by the State government.

President of the private medical colleges managements association P. Krishnadas told The Hindu that it made for common sense that the government did not conduct an entrance examination for allied medical courses. “Anyhow, admissions to MBBS and BDS must be made from the NEET list. In 2016 the Supreme Court had allowed Kerala, as a one-time measure to admit students from the State medical entrance rank list. That is how admissions were made to all government colleges and the government seats in self-financing colleges from the State list,” he pointed out.
The number of students appearing for medical courses other than MBBS and BDS is so small that it would not be financially viable for the State to conduct an entrance examination for such students alone. It would also lead to a situation where students in Kerala would have to write three entrance examinations if they wanted to be considered for engineering, MBBS/BDS and the allied medical courses. The Cabinet also okayed the creation of 105 posts in the government medical colleges in Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Thrissur, and Kozhikode for setting up medical oncology, surgical oncology and oncopathology divisions there. The posts which would be created are that of 50 doctors and 55 staff nurses.