Dubai: The Indian High School (IHS) at Oud Metha will be the exam centre of NEET-UG 2024 in Dubai. NEET-UG (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate), conducted by India’s NTA (National Testing Agency), is the qualifying exam for admission s to MBBS and other undergraduate medical courses in India.
NTA recently said revealed that there would be exam centres in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah for NEET-UG 2024. Even though the centre in Dubai has been announced now, there is no mention in NTA’s official notification about the centres in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.
Students can register for this year’s NEET-UG till March 9. The exam date is May 5.
Indian students and their parents in the Gulf countries were concerned over whether exam centres would be allotted for the region this year. There was a big relief for them following the NTA’s announcement in this regard. NTA, in a post on ‘X’ platform, said that apart from the three centres in the UAE, NEET-UG will be conducted at Kuwait City in Kuwait, Doha in Qatar, Manama in Bahrain, Muscat in Oman and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. There would be 14 centres outside India, NTA said in the post.
In UAE, around 5,000 students are expected to take the exam this year. This was the number of candidates during the previous NEET-UG held in the Gulf nation and many of them had secured high ranks.
A large number of Indian students are enrolled in schools in Gulf countries and they prepare for entrance examinations conducted by Indian agencies. Moreover, these students join classes conducted by several India-based entrance-coaching institutions functioning in the Gulf.
With the allotment of NEET-UG centres in the Gulf nations, these students will be spared the hassles of travelling to India to take the test. The flight fares to India are already high and they are expected to shoot up further when the exam approaches, said parents of the students who would be appearing for NEET-UG.
It was in 2021 that NEET-UG centres were allotted abroad for the first time. This was in view of the travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented Indian students from flying to India to take the test.
Dubai Indian High School was the lone test centre in UAE in 2021 and students from other Gulf nations also appeared for the exam here. Incidentally, the number of female students was 40 per cent more than male candidates that year. NEET-UG was conducted in pen-and-paper mode and had a duration of three hours and 20 minutes.