Imagine a surgeon who barely scraped through their entrance exam with a score of 8%. Sounds unsettling? It’s not hypothetical—it’s the reality of India’s current postgraduate medical admissions landscape. The NEET-PG cut-offs have been on a steady downward spiral for years, and in 2026, they’ve hit a new low that’s raising red flags across the healthcare ecosystem .
This isn’t just a statistical anomaly. It’s a symptom of deeper systemic issues: an explosion in medical college seats without a corresponding rise in teaching quality, chronic faculty shortages, and a growing mismatch between supply and demand in specialist training. And while more doctors might sound like progress, experts warn that quantity without quality could jeopardize patient safety and erode trust in the entire medical profession.
Table of Contents
- The Shocking Trend: How Low Have NEET-PG Cut-Offs Gone?
- Why Are NEET-PG Cut-Offs Falling So Sharply?
- Are Falling Cut-Offs Compromising Doctor Quality?
- What Is the NMC Doing About It?
- The Student Dilemma: High Stakes, Low Rewards
- Conclusion: Balancing Access and Excellence in Medical Education
- Sources
The Shocking Trend: How Low Have NEET-PG Cut-Offs Gone?
In 2026, the qualifying percentile for the general category in NEET-PG dropped to a mere 10th percentile—translating to a raw score of just 137 out of 800, or roughly 17% . For reserved categories, the cut-off sank even lower, with some candidates qualifying with scores under 10%. To put this in perspective, a candidate could get fewer than 50 questions right out of 200 and still be eligible for a postgraduate seat.
This is a dramatic fall from just five years ago, when the general category cut-off hovered around the 50th percentile. The decline has been so consistent that it’s no longer a blip—it’s a pattern.
Why Are NEET-PG Cut-Offs Falling So Sharply?
Several interconnected factors are at play:
- Explosion of Medical Colleges: Over the past decade, the number of medical colleges in India has nearly doubled—from 387 in 2014 to over 700 in 2026 . Many of these new institutions, especially in private hands, lack adequate infrastructure, clinical exposure, and qualified faculty.
- Seat Vacancies: Despite the surge in seats, thousands remain unfilled every year because students refuse to join colleges perceived as substandard. To fill these vacancies, authorities are forced to lower the qualifying threshold repeatedly during mop-up rounds.
- Faculty Shortage: The National Medical Commission (NMC) mandates a strict teacher-student ratio. But with a nationwide shortage of postgraduate-qualified faculty, many colleges can’t run all their sanctioned seats, leading to artificial inflation of available positions.
- Urban-Rural Divide: Top scorers overwhelmingly prefer prestigious urban institutions. Rural or newly established colleges struggle to attract even minimally qualified candidates, forcing cut-offs down to accommodate the last willing applicant.
Are Falling Cut-Offs Compromising Doctor Quality?
This is the million-dollar question. Medical educators argue that a candidate scoring in the bottom 10% may lack the foundational knowledge, critical thinking, and clinical aptitude required for specialized training. “You can’t build a skyscraper on a weak foundation,” says Dr. Anjali Desai, a senior professor at AIIMS Delhi .
The fear isn’t just academic. A poorly trained radiologist might miss a tumor. An underprepared anesthetist could miscalculate a dose. In high-stakes specialties, the margin for error is razor-thin. While the final responsibility lies with the training institution, admitting candidates with minimal competence sets the stage for failure.
What Is the NMC Doing About It?
The National Medical Commission has acknowledged the issue but remains cautious about imposing a fixed minimum score, citing concerns about equity and access. However, it has introduced stricter inspections for new colleges and is pushing for centralized counseling to reduce seat wastage .
Some experts propose a two-tier system: maintaining a higher bar for competitive specialties (like neurosurgery or cardiology) while allowing lower thresholds for less sought-after fields (like community medicine). Others suggest linking seat allocation to institutional performance metrics.
The Student Dilemma: High Stakes, Low Rewards
From the student’s side, the pressure is immense. After years of grueling MBBS training and expensive NEET-PG coaching, many feel forced to accept any seat—even in a dubious college—just to avoid another year of uncertainty. “It’s not that we don’t care about quality,” says Rohan Mehta, a 2026 NEET-PG aspirant. “But the system gives us no good options.”
This creates a vicious cycle: students join low-tier colleges out of desperation, graduate with inadequate skills, and then struggle to find jobs or pass licensing exams abroad—further tarnishing the reputation of Indian medical degrees.
Conclusion: Balancing Access and Excellence in Medical Education
The plummeting NEET-PG cut-offs are a wake-up call. Expanding medical education is essential for a country of 1.4 billion, but expansion without quality control is reckless. The solution lies not in shutting down colleges, but in enforcing rigorous standards, investing in faculty development, and creating incentives for students to serve in underserved areas. Until then, the dream of “more doctors” risks becoming a nightmare of “more unqualified doctors.” For more on India’s healthcare workforce challenges, see our deep dive on [INTERNAL_LINK:future-of-medical-education-in-india].