Kota: The National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) has announced a significant revision in the qualifying percentile for NEET-PG 2024, reducing it to the fifth percentile for all categories. This decision, made following directions from the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, aims to address the issue of vacant postgraduate (PG) medical seats across the country.
Revised NEET-PG 2024 Cutoff
🔹 General/EWS: 5th percentile
🔹 UR-PwBD: 5th percentile
🔹 SC/ST/OBC (including PwBD of SC/ST/OBC): 5th percentile
The revision will allow thousands of additional candidates to become eligible for All India Quota, State Quota, and Deemed University admissions. However, NEET-PG 2024 Rank and Percentile Score remain unchanged.
Expert Concerns Over Quality Compromise
Education expert Dev Sharma has expressed concerns over lowering merit standards, stating that this move primarily aims to fill vacant non-clinical PG seats in both government and private medical colleges.
📌 Reasons Behind the Decision:
✔ Lack of Interest in Non-Clinical PG Courses – Many MBBS graduates avoid subjects like anatomy, biochemistry, pharmacology, forensic medicine, and community medicine due to limited career prospects.
✔ Vacant Seats in Prestigious Institutions – Even top government medical colleges like SMS Jaipur, SP Medical College Bikaner, RNT Udaipur, JLN Ajmer, Kota, and Jhalawar have vacant non-clinical PG seats.
✔ Worsening Situation in Private Colleges – In Rajasthan alone, 366 PG seats are vacant, out of which 337 belong to private medical institutions.
Experts suggest that the pressure from private medical colleges to fill seats is a major factor behind this percentile reduction.
Background: Previous NEET-PG Cutoff Revisions
Earlier, on January 4, 2025, the government had already reduced the qualifying percentile:
✔ General/EWS – 15th percentile
✔ OBC (Non-Creamy Layer)/SC/ST – 10th percentile
However, as many PG seats still remained vacant, the cutoff was further lowered to the fifth percentile.
Implications for Medical Education
While the reduction in percentile helps fill vacant seats, it raises concerns about compromising the quality of future specialists. The government and medical institutions may need to reform PG course structures to attract students to non-clinical specialties rather than lowering admission standards.
