After two rounds of admission: 741 MBBS seats vacant, to be allotted in stray vacancy round

These seats will once again be allotted to students in the stray vacancy round which will be announced by the end of the month, said officials.

Mumbai: The second common admission round for undergraduate (UG) medical courses ended on March 17 and as per information shared by the State Common Entrance Test (CET) cell, 591 MBBS (medical) remain vacant after two rounds. An additional 150 seats recently approved by the National Medical Commission (NMC) for two separate medical institutes will take total MBBS seats available for allotment in stray vacancy round to 741. Figures also reveal that 941 BDS (dental) seats are vacant post the first two rounds of admissions.

Vacant seats include the ones that were not confirmed either because the student has already bagged a seat in the all India round or is waiting for a betterment option in the upcoming round. (Stock Pic)

These seats will once again be allotted to students in the stray vacancy round which will be announced by the end of the month, said officials.

“Vacant seats include the ones that were not confirmed either because the student has already bagged a seat in the all India round or is waiting for a betterment option in the upcoming round. We will also check with state University authorities to find out if seats from newly approved colleges can be included too for the stray vacancy round and then release an official seat matrix,” said a senior official from the state CET cell.

Admissions to undergraduate medical, dental and other health science courses started after a four month delay due to a series of petitions filed against introduction of reservation quotas in the All-India Quota (AIQ) seats.

While the first seat allotment list was released on February 1 this year, the second list was announced March 8. Along with the seats left vacant after the first two rounds, additional 150 seats from recently approved colleges are also expected to be included in the stray vacancy round.

While CET cell feels there’s still many vacancies in state medical institutions, parents highlighted that this number also includes seats from the NRI category, where the fees can become very high (nearly four or five times the general fees).

“At least 400 seats out of the remaining vacant seats are from the NRI quota, which is beyond reach for many. Considering the 100 seats in Pune’s Shri Atal Bihari Medical College recently approved by NMC and another 50 seats from Amaravati institute which were not allotted in the first two rounds, students from the general category should have nearly 200-250 seats to aim for in the stray vacancy round,” said Sudha Shenoy, parent and activist.