Deemed universities have 90 percent MBBS seats lying vacant after counselling

Chennai: The Directorate General of Health Sciences(DGHS) after having finished with 2 rounds of counselling in deemed universities revealed that 90% of MBBS seats in several deemed universities across the country, some costing up to Rs 1 crore, continued to lie vacant on Monday.

Vacancies prior to the mop up counselling on Wednesday showed 817 students as having joined 43 deemed universities in the second round. With this, the vacancy number decreased from 8,278 seats in round 1 to 7,461 seats in round 2.

"We will see if we can fill up more seats in the mop-up round," a senior DGHS official said from New Delhi.

Acting at the behest of a Supreme Court order, the DGHS this year conducted centralised counselling for deemed universities Tamil Nadu saw only six more students join the deemed in the second round of counselling. The DGHS in an attempt to fill seats asked students who were not allotted seats in the two rounds, to fill in choices by Tuesday.

The DGHS will, on Wednesday, process the results for the mop-up round and publish them on Thursday. Students will have to pay fees to secure admission to the colleges, between August 25 and August 28.

Vacant seats, will be returned by the DGHS to the universities, on August 28. The universities will have time until August 31 to fill the seats.

Parents say that several universities are desperate and have invited applications from students. "I was told that if I was willing to pay the fees now, my son will be assured an admission," said a businessman. "Agents have also started negotiating, but this time we know the exact number of seats that are vacant."

The DGHS vacancy list published, is an indication of the number of seats lying untouched in some colleges, and yet others with a meagre strength to boast of. ACS Medical College in Chennai had no student admissions done. To list a few :

• ACS Medical College in Chennai which charges Rs.19 lakh as annual tuition fee and Rs1.75 lakh as hostel fee is an example to be cited for no admissions


• GITAM Institute of Medical Science and Research, Visakhapatnam-1 admission


• Aarupadai Veedu Medical College and Hospital, Puducherry- 1 admission


• Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Chennai- two admissions

Meanwhile, in Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai, 128 of 250 seats were found vacant; Saveetha University, Chennai along with DY Patil University, Navi Mumbai reflected each to be retaining 137 of the 150 seats. SRM Medical University also had 37 of 150 seats as vacant.

The prohibitive fee was cited as one of the reasons for students rejecting admissions in deemed universities. The fee in each of the colleges ranged between 18.5 lakh and 23 lakh.

"My son had asked for Kasturba Medical College in Manipal as his first choice, but he did not get a seat there," said another parent, "The fee in Manipal is Rs 10.3 lakh. Now he has been allotted to a college where the fee is Rs 21.5 lakh. But 83 of 250 seats in Manipal are still vacant."

Her son will not be able to join the mop-up round because DGHS has said only registered candidates who were not allotted a seat in the second round of allotment and have submitted fresh choices as per the vacancies, before the second round of counselling, are to be considered as eligible for the round, reports TOI.