Baba Farid varsity wants admission criteria relaxed

With many Bachelor of Dental Sciences (BDS) seats vacant in Punjab after the first counselling, the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, has written to the state government that the criteria of admission needs to be relaxed.

With many Bachelor of Dental Sciences (BDS) seats vacant in Punjab after the first counselling, the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, has written to the state government that the criteria of admission needs to be relaxed.

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Of the 858 BDS seats, 653 were vacant after the first centralised counselling on June 25, and the 205 taken will be empty when the takers move to the MBBS, where the state pool now has 200 more seats (150 at Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences, Jalandhar, and 50 at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College Faridkiot).

Anticipating an empty BDS batch at the end of the second counselling for the MBBS seats, a worried BFUHS vice-chancellor Dr SS Gill has written SOS to principal secretary for medical education Vini Mahajan. “If seats in dental colleges of Punjab remain vacant, it’ll be bad for the state’s economy as well,” he wrote.

Referring to clause 12 of the Punjab government notification related to admissions, he wrote: “In case there is an inadequate number of candidates with minimum prescribed marks in the AIPMT (All-India Pre-Medical Test), 2014, then the BFUHS may approach the union government to get relaxation through the Punjab government.”

The state has 14 private (1,070 BDS seats) and two government dental colleges (80 seats).