UG medical seats up by 670 across GMC and private, open aspirants unhappy

A total of 220 new seats have been added in the government medical institutes and 450 seats have been added in private medical institutes this year

Mumbai: The Maharashtra state Common Entrance Test (CET) cell released the seat matrix (intake capacity) for undergraduate medical (MBBS) and dental (BDS) for the academic year 2021-22.

Seats for open category students keep diminishing because of new reservation quotas, which is unfair to meritorious students, says a UG medical aspirant (HT)

A total of 220 new seats have been added in the government medical institutes and 450 seats have been added in private medical institutes this year. The provisional state merit list was announced by the CET cell on Wednesday evening and the seat matrix was released late on Thursday evening.

While sanction to four new government medical colleges (GMCs) was expected for the current academic year, the National Medical Commission (NMC) in November approved two new GMCs, one each in Satara and Alibaug, while two other institutes in Pune and Sindhudurg were still awaited. In case of private medical institutes, along with new sanctions, several existing institutes have sought increase in their intake capacity and were granted the same this year.

Activist Sudha Shenoy shared, “Announcement of the seat matrix has brought respite to anxious students waiting to find out the total seats available in government as well as private institutes. Overall, more seats have been added this year, which should give students more options. Everyone can now start filling the choice preference list as per the information available.”

As per the latest notification for admissions to UG health science courses this year, 62% seats will be going to the reserved categories while the remaining 38% goes to those from the open category.

Eligible candidates can now start filling out their preference forms between January 21 and 28. The first seat allotment list for the 2021-22 academic year for MBBS and BDS is scheduled to be released on January 31.

NEET-UG exams were conducted in September 2021 and the results were announced by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on November 1. A four month stay on admissions was vacated by the Supreme Court (SC) in the first week of January 2022, giving a go-ahead to state government admission authorities to start the process.

Maharashtra CET cell concluded pre-admission registrations on January 17 and accepted applications of 59,437 candidates their year—nearly 5,000 registrations lower than what was registered for the same courses last year in the state.