| Monday, April 28, 2008
The long wait for more MBBS seats
There are proposals to add more medical seats, but will they
be cleared for the current year?
That time of the year is upon us again. Not very long from now
the calculations will begin — cut-off marks, ranks, percentile
of seats, quota — for that race to possess a precious
commodity — an MBBS seat.
While speculations was rife last year that more students were
preferring engineering to medicine, subsequent admissions proved
that medical courses had not lost their sheen after all, with
every single MBBS seat being taken up. Adding to the confusion
about the number of seats were issues relating to the merits
of entrance examinations and the viability of a ranking procedure
in the absence of entrance marks. Everything seemed to be in
a flux, with the Medical Council of India not granting recognition
for Government Medical Colleges in Vellore, Theni and Kanyakumari
initially. However, that issue was resolved, with the intervention
of the Union Health Minister, and Tamil Nadu got its quota of
seats.
The total number of MBBS seats available will remain the same
this year at 1398 (in government medical colleges), sources
at the Direcorate of Medical Education say. However they add
that there might be an increase if the MCI grants approval and
recognition to the newly-constructed Dharmapuri Medical College.
That number is expected to be in the range of 100 -150 seats.
However, unless approval comes, it will be difficult to predict
the exact increase in the number of MBBS seats available for
the academic year 2008-2009, sources added. However, the State
will have a total of 1645 seats, inclusive of the government
quota in private medical colleges alone. Of this quantum, 247
seats will be added to the all-India quota from the State.
There are also two other private institutions that have reached
as far as an MCI inspection, but no information is available
as yet from the Council about the status of their applications.
Last year, the cut-off for the OC category was 197 marks; for
BCs it was 194.50; for MBCs, it was 191.75; SCs 187.25 and STs
179. Seven candidates who had qualified by scoring 200/200 in
the examinations were slotted in the first seven places in the
merit list.
Educationists who are watching the medical education sector
keenly say the cut-off mark is unlikely to go down. “The
students’ performance is getting better each year. If
anything, the cut-off marks may go up this academic year,”
says C. Ramachandran who has also served as secretary of the
Selection Committee.
Education counsellor Jayaprakash Gandhi advises that the counselling
should be conducted as per overall ranking, instead of as it
was done last year, calling the candidates as per caste quota
on different days. His suggestion to the government is also
to clear the air about whether students who had appeared for
the exam earlier could also be eligible in order to avoid the
confusion that marred the admission process last year.
Courtesy: The Hindu - Education Plus |
