35-60% seats in Maharashtra vacant in private dental colleges: Report

Days after the Central government extended the admissions deadline for undergraduate medical and dental seats until January 15 to fill up all vacant seats across the country, the Dental Council of India (DCI) through its latest circular has extended admissions deadline for Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course until January 31

Days after the Central government extended the admissions deadline for undergraduate medical and dental seats until January 15 to fill up all vacant seats across the country, the Dental Council of India (DCI) through its latest circular has extended admissions deadline for Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course until January 31. The step comes after several states showed as many as 35-60% vacant seats in private dental colleges.

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According to information shared by the state common entrance test (CET) cell, almost 35% seats - 852 seats out of 2,400 seats - in private dental colleges in Maharashtra remain vacant as of January 8, post three common admission rounds and two mop-up rounds. Last year, 1,028 seats out of 2,350 seats in private dental colleges had gone vacant after three common admission rounds and the same figure stood at 622 in 2018.

“In the last two rounds, admission withdrawals were higher than the number of seat confirmations, which could be because more students got a betterment option in a government or private medical college in Maharashtra or any other state,” said a senior official from the CET cell. He added that the extension in admissions deadline might not change the situation, especially since many colleges have already started lectures for their first-year batches.

The rise in vacancy in dental institutes has been the trend for some years now, especially in states like Karnataka, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, forcing more and more state governments to seek permission from the central government to lower the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) percentile score for eligibility.

An aspirant needs to score at least 50 percentile in NEET to be eligible for admission to a dental institute, however, the state of Karnataka has sought that this eligibility score is lowered to 20 percentile after almost 60% of their seats in private dental colleges remained vacant even after two rounds of admission.

Experts have time and again pointed at the issues of unemployment prevailing in this sector for BDS graduates, as well as the high financial back-up to set up a private practice as the main reason for the decline in demand for the course. “Dentists don’t get absorbed into the system as the MBBS graduates do, and if they want to set up their practice they need financial backing which is very difficult for most people,” said Muzaffar Khan, a Thane-based medical education counsellor. He added that this has led to poor demand for the course in most rural parts of the country.

Recently, HT had reported how deemed dental institutes in the state have witnessed a 163% increase in seat vacancy under the management and NRI quotas, compared to last year. As per information shared by the Directorate General of Health Sciences (DGHS) recently, close to 318 seats are vacant under the management as well as NRI quotas this year, after three common admission and two mop-up rounds.

The deputy dean of a private dental institute in the state said that the constant delay in admissions and insistence of the state government to conduct several common admission rounds is the main reason for discouraging dental aspirants. “Until three years ago, no dental institute complained of seat vacancy but ever since 85% seats of the private dental institutes are being filled up by the state CET cell, more and more dental institutes are bearing the brunt of high seat vacancy in the course,” he said.