New MBBS norms introduced, 80% village attendance must for exams

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, June 15

Village outreach will be a compulsory part of MBBS undergraduate curriculum from the 2023-24 academic session commencing in August and students will need minimum 80 per cent attendance in such visits to be eligible to write exams.

The landmark move aimed at boosting rural healthcare is part of changes India’s apex medical education regulator, the National Medical Commission (NMC), has made to undergraduate medical curriculum. The changes are introduced once in 26 years.

Major changes

• Third Professional part II (MBBS final part II) will now be called NEXT (National Exit Test)
• Previously, the 3rd Professional Part I exam (MBBS Final part I) was conducted in ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology, community medicine and forensic medicine and toxicology. Now, it will only be conducted in community medicine and forensic medicine and toxicology. Other subjects will be covered by NEXT, along with ENT
• Biochemistry and microbiology to have one paper of 100 marks instead of two papers of 100 marks each as done previously
• Requirement of 40% pass marks in each theory paper removed; now 50% aggregate needed if there are two papers in a given subject

The new Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023, which supersede the 1997 rules, were notified on Monday and will apply starting the 2023 MBBS batch.

Under village outreach, called “Family adoption programme”, MBBS students would need to make 26 visits to five adopted families each during the course period and put in 78 hours in all 27 in the first professional year, 30 in the second and 21 in the third and final professional year. “There shall be minimum 75 per cent attendance in theory and 80 per cent in practical and clinical for eligibility to appear in examinations in that subject. In subjects taught in more than one phase, the learner must have 75 per cent attendance in theory and 80 per cent in practical in each phase. There shall be minimum 80 per cent attendance in family visits under the ‘Family adoption programme’,” state new rules.

“This is the first time village outreach has been made a mandatory part of the MBBS course and village visit attendance made eligibility criteria to write exams. This will help bridge the disparity in healthcare delivery between urban and rural centres as students would be required to adopt five families each, gather clinical data and work to improve their clinical outcomes,” physician Indrajit Khandekar told The Tribune today.

The second big change in the new rules is the replacement of MBBS final year part 2 exam (also called third professional part 2) with the proposed National Exit Test (NEXT) by 2024. The NEXT regulations will be notified by then.

So far, universities conducted all exams at the end of MBBS course periods. Starting this year, final year MBBS part 2 exam will be conducted nationally as NEXT, a licentiate test for MBBS passouts.

The NMC has further dropped the practice of grace marks, reduced the foundation course duration from one month to one week in the first MBBS professional year and clearly told universities that there will be no MBBS admissions after August 30.

“Universities will manage admission timings and process in such a way that teaching in the first professional year commences by August 1 of each year. There shall be no admission of students in respect of any academic session beyond August 30 under any circumstance. The universities shall not register any student admitted beyond the said date,” NMC regulations state, hoping to curb the practice of admissions lingering on till September.