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NEET aspirants in UAE change exam centre to Dubai after paying additional fee

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Dubai - The examination will take place on September 12.

Published: Sat 14 Aug 2021, 3:45 PM

Updated: Sat 14 Aug 2021, 3:45 PM

  • By
  • Nandini Sircar

NEET aspirants in the UAE have finally managed to change their examination centre to Dubai after paying an additional fee of Rs6,100 (about Dh305).

Hundreds of students and parents breathed a sigh of relief last month after the UAE was chosen as a centre for the Indian medical college entrance exam for the first time.


The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is a common entrance exam taken by students who aspire to pursue MBBS or any other medical course in India. The examination will be conducted on September 12, 2021.

Earlier, the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced that the correction period was between August 8 and 12 but later the dates were changed to August 11-14, to enable candidates to make corrections in the permissible fields in their respective online application forms.


A parent of an NEET aspirant, Najalah Faiz said: “We managed to change the exam centre to Dubai after paying a fee. My son had already filled up the form and all he needed to do was to change his examination centre to Dubai. His previous choice of exam centres were all in Kerala but travelling to India was an issue with all the previous flight bans.”

She added: “My son has retained three other centres in Kerala as his second, third and fourth options. We are relieved that Dubai is one of the examination centres now and that he will not have to travel anymore to take the exams.”

Many other candidates like Najalah’s son who had already applied for NEET (UG) -2021 have also changed their choice of city for exam centre to Dubai during the correction period.

Another parent, Annie Cherian said: “It’s been a welcome move certainly as travelling to India is fraught with challenges. Now things have eased to some extent but earlier we didn’t know if we could come back and the bigger worry is that both of us are working. Therefore, this news is certainly a relief. My son has opted for Dubai as the exam centre as soon as it was open for editing. The other three options continue to be in our hometown in Kerala.”

She added: “We did have a few concerns, if all the NEET aspirants from Dubai would be able to opt for the emirate as their preferred examination centre and if few would be compelled to choose centres outside the UAE. But much to our pleasant surprise the entire process was extremely smooth, all we needed to do was to pay a little extra for choosing the new centre.”

Afsal Abdul Nazar, who aspires to pursue MBBS said: “Frankly, I watched a few YouTube videos that have been circulating on the internet to learn more about how to fill up the form correctly to change the centre. The process thankfully was quite seamless. I had waited and hadn’t filled up the form originally as I was anticipating Dubai will be offered as one of the examination centres. I didn’t have to edit my form and directly selected Dubai. With a centre in the UAE, it makes things a lot easier for many students like me as the travel restrictions due to the pandemic has been a huge cause of concern for all.”



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