3 medical colleges granted pvt univ status bring down local seats from 85% to 40%

MUMBAI: Medical students and their parents are confused about a new provision in the seat matrix for the Maharashtra NEET-UG admissions, which limits the number of seats available to Maharashtra-domicile students in three colleges recently granted private university status

MUMBAI: Medical students and their parents are confused about a new provision in the seat matrix for the Maharashtra NEET-UG admissions, which limits the number of seats available to Maharashtra-domicile students in three colleges recently granted private university status. The new provision has increased the number of seats for out-of-state students from 15% to 60%.

The three institutions are the Dr Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil Foundation’s Medical College in Ahilyanagar, the NKP Salve Institute of Medical Sciences in Nagpur and the Ranjeet Deshmukh Dental College and Research Centre in Nagpur. The state cabinet approved the conversion of the three into private universities on Monday.

A circular put out by the state’s Common Entrance Test (CET) cell on Tuesday night stated that only 40% of the total intake in the newly formed private universities would be available to Maharashtra-domicile students while the remaining seats were for students from outside the state. However, the names of these three colleges do not even figure in the seat matrix uploaded on Wednesday on the CET cell website for the first round of admissions.

Students that HT spoke to said that seats in these colleges were earlier available to students from Maharashtra, including through the institutional quota. The sudden change has raised concerns among candidates who are now finalising their college choices.

Sudha Shenoy, a parent activist from Mumbai, said that the seats of these colleges should have been clearly mentioned before students made their choices. “Students who are on the borderline of the admission process used to choose these colleges every year. The last-minute change is impacting them,” she said.

A senior CET Cell official explained that the process of granting private university status was still under way. “Once it is completed, we will add their seats in the subsequent rounds,” he said. The official also clarified that despite getting private university status, the colleges will have to conduct admissions through either the state admission authority or the national admission authority.

The domicile provision has also drawn criticism from student leaders. Kalpesh Yadav, a Yuva Sena (UBT) member who has been raising concerns related to CET admissions, said, “According to the available intake, the two medical colleges together have 400 MBBS seats while the dental college has 100 BDS seats. The new provision will lead to a reduction of around 235 medical/dental seats available to local students.”

Yadav also raised concerns about fees, saying that with these colleges becoming private universities, the state government’s control over fees could reduce, potentially increasing the financial burden on students and parents.

Meanwhile, 35,463 candidates have been included in the Maharashtra NEET-UG final merit list for the first round of MBBS and BDS admissions.