18% seats in pharma courses in Maharashtra vacant; EWS quota to blame?

Despite an increase in demand for pharmacy institutes across the state and country, the overall seat vacancy in state pharmacy institutes increased by almost 16%

Despite an increase in demand for pharmacy institutes across the state and country, the overall seat vacancy in state pharmacy institutes increased by almost 16% this year and stood at 18% compared to 2.11% last year.

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Educationists have blamed seat vacancy under the economically weaker section (EWS) quota across professional courses to the sudden hike of overall seat vacancy.

As per figures shared by the state common entrance test (CET) cell, out of 22,500 total seats in pharmacy institutes across Maharashtra this year, 3,947 (18%) seats went vacant which included 1,541 seats under the EWS quota alone. Last year, only 363 (2.11%) seats out of 17,188 had gone vacant in pharmacy institutes.

“Demand for pharmacy course has gone up tremendously in the past five years and at least until last year, seat vacancy would not go beyond 3%. This year, most seats that went vacant are in the EWS quota because students who applied for it either didn’t have the right documents or could not afford the fees,” said the director of a Pune-based pharmacy institute.

HT had recently reported that overall vacancy of seats in undergraduate and postgraduate engineering admissions rose this year and colleges blamed seat vacancy under the EWS quota for it.

Figures further revealed how in BE/BTech alone, seat vacancy in the EWS quota stood at 82% across government and private institutes this year as only 1,877 seats out of the 10,249 seats found takers. Similarly, the overall seat vacancy in the EWS quota in ME/MTech admissions stood at 94% —out of 1,160 seats, only 69 were filled. Similarly, 90% seats under the EWS quota were vacant in management (MBA/MMS) admissions this year.

“Most students who applied for admissions in the EWS quota were not aware of rules and regulations. They didn’t know that even under the quota, they’ll have to pay 50% of the fees and many students could not afford that,” said Gopakumaram Thampi, principal, Thadomal Shahani Engineering College, Bandra.

He added that this led to chaos in engineering colleges during admissions and eventually many students didn’t take admission under the quota, leading to many vacant seats.