The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) has announced that the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) will become a compulsory requirement for admission to several undergraduate allied and healthcare courses starting from the 2026–27 academic session.
The commission clarified that students aspiring to pursue allied and healthcare professional courses after completing Class 12 or an equivalent must appear for NEET to meet all other course-specific eligibility criteria.
These Healthcare and allied courses include physiotherapy, optometry, nutrition and dietetics, dialysis technology, and a wide range of therapy-based courses.
The commission believes that mandating NEET will help standardize entry pathways, curb irregular admissions, and improve the overall academic quality of students entering these fields.
This step aims at standardising admissions and improving the quality of allied healthcare education in India, and also to bring Uniformity, Transparency, and Merit-based selection to a sector that is crucial in healthcare services in India.
Join NEET News 2025 In its latest update, NCAHP confirmed that it has already notified 13 curricula for undergraduate and postgraduate programs under the Allied and Healthcare category.
These curricula will be implemented from the upcoming academic cycle beginning in 2026–27. The commission also indicated that more curricula are likely to be released soon.
The adoption of NEET for allied and healthcare programmes marks a significant change from the earlier admission system, which largely relied on state-level entrance tests, institutional exams, or direct merit-based admissions from Class 12 marks.
With the revised admission framework scheduled to commence in 2026–27, students across the country will now face a unified national-level entrance process for these professional courses.
Earlier this year, NCAHP also recommended discontinuing the use of the term “paramedical,” replacing it with the more inclusive and formally recognized term “Allied and Healthcare.”
This change reflects the expanding scope, technical expertise, and growing professional recognition of these disciplines within the healthcare ecosystem.
Experts believe that this reform will help ensure better academic preparedness among upcoming students and enhance the overall standards of training in allied health sciences.
Read Also: Beyond MBBS: How Allied Health Sciences Are Reshaping India’s Medical Workforce
