The National Medical Commission has deferred the National Exit Test (NExT) for medical students until further notice.

The commission said that this comes after an advisory from the ministry on July 11. NExT is a qualifying exam for final year MBBS students and a licentiate exam that will allow Indian medical professionals to practice medicine.

It may be recollected that soon after the announcement of the exit test was made, students from across the country submitted representations to union health minister Dr Mansukh Mandviya citing the challenges they faced.

Social media posts, both by faculty and students at medical college, urging the minister not to introduce the exam for the current batch surfaced. Protests were held nationwide.

RTI activist Dr Vivek Pandey, one of the medical professionals who submitted a representation to the union minister urged the minister to be considerate as the 2019 batch had already suffered due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “It is against the principle of natural justice to implement an entirely new process retrospectively on those students who knew nothing about Next at the time of admissions in 2019,” read a complaint.

 On June 6, Dr Mandviya, who interacted with students at AIIMS Raipur said that the exam would not be conducted for 2019 students. The lack of formal notification following this statement had left students confused.