BSc nursing seats in Punjab set to remain vacant, only 8% qualify 2nd entrance test

With 97% of seats in the undergraduate nursing courses remaining vacant after the first round of counselling, the medical university decided to hold another entrance test for want of enough eligible candidates

The undergraduate nursing seats are set to remain vacant in the state as only 220 candidates managed to qualify in the second entrance test conducted by the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) for admissions to BSc nursing courses.

92% of candidates, who appeared in the second entrance test, failed to score minimum marks.

With 97% of seats in the undergraduate nursing courses remaining vacant after the first round of counselling, the medical university decided to hold another entrance test for want of enough eligible candidates. But the attempt failed as 92% of candidates, who appeared in the second entrance test, failed to score minimum marks.

The BFUHS conducted the entrance test on Sunday but only 220 of the 2,730 could score 50 or above marks required for the eligibility. A total of 3,878 candidates applied online for the test, of which 1,148 remained absent.

In the first entrance test conducted in August, only 240 of the 2,596 candidates could score more than 50 marks. During the first round of the counselling, the BFUHS allotted nursing seats to 190 candidates while 4,780 seats remained vacant in government and private nursing colleges of the state.

There are 4,970 BSc nursing seats in the 103 colleges of the state. During the first round of counselling, 89 nursing colleges failed to fill even a single BSc nursing seat.

BFUHS vice-chancellor Dr Raj Bahadur said: “We have conducted the second entrance test to give another chance to the students as a large number of seats are vacant. But unfortunately, only 220 students have managed to score the qualifying marks. This is very disappointing that students are not putting in efforts the profession needs,” he added.

Officials said the BFUHS had even put an easier question paper in the second entrance test to fill the nursing seats but still only a few students qualified.

In recent years, there has been a continuous decline in the number of candidates interested in pursuing nursing courses, badly affecting the private colleges offering the courses.