After 3 rounds, 400 seats in pvt medical colleges vacant

Over 400 seats remain vacant across private medical colleges in the state after three rounds of common admissions and 95 of these seats are at one institution: Vedantaa

Over 400 seats remain vacant across private medical colleges in the state after three rounds of common admissions and 95 of these seats are at one institution: Vedantaa Institute of Medical Sciences in Palghar. Across Maharashtra, 135 vacant seats are from the merit category, while the rest belong to the institutional quota, which includes management as well as non-resident Indian (NRI) quotas.

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Last year, this figure stood at 243. In 2017, the total number of vacant seats in private colleges after three admission rounds was 198.

According to information shared by the state common entrance test (CET) cell on their website, 95 out of the 135 vacant merit seats are in Vedantaa Institute of Medical Sciences. Of 150 seats available for undergraduate medical aspirants, 117 seats found no takers at the institute this year.

“This year, a large chunk of seats have gone vacant in one particular college, which is the Vedantaa Institute of Medical Sciences in Palghar as the institute has not found takers for 78% of their seats,” said an official from the Directorate of Medical Education & Research (DMER).

“Since Vedantaa Institute of Medical Sciences is a private institute and registered under the Companies Act, the government cannot reimburse fees for reserved category students. Also, the institute has faced flak from authorities for not owning necessary infrastructure to run a medical institute. All these factors led to low turnout for their seats,” said Anand Rayate, commissioner, CET cell.

In 2017, Vedantaa Institute of Medical Sciences became the first institute in Maharashtra to be registered under the Private Companies Act, making it a for-profit education institute.

In 2018, the institute proposed to charge fees of ₹32 lakh per annum for the 2019-20 academic year, but the fee regulating authority (FRA) capped the fees at ₹4.5 lakh.

At present, while the institute has been allowed to charge ₹14.5 lakh fees per annum, the management has made it clear to students that it plans to challenge this cap on fees in court and hopes to get permission to charge ₹22 lakh per annum.

Ganesh Kesari, dean of Vedantaa Institute of Medical Sciences, said, “Yes we have maximum vacancy. There is prescribed procedure to fill these vacant seats. It is done under instruction from the CET Cell.”