No takers for 45% BDS seats in private colleges

FARIDKOT: Private dental colleges in Punjab are left with nearly 45% vacant seats after the completion of all rounds of counselling for admissions to the graduate course. Of 1,240 bachelor of dental surgery (BDS) seats in 14 private colleges, 549 are vacant, highest in at least the past nine years.

Meanwhile, all 90 seats in government dental colleges at Amritsar and Patiala were filled during counselling conducted by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot.

According to data provided by the BFUHS, only four private colleges -- Christian Dental College,

Ludhiana (40); SGRD institute, Amritsar (60); Baba Jaswant Singh college, Ludhiana (100); and SKSS dental college, Ludhiana (40) -- managed to fill all their BDS seats.

Meanwhile, eight colleges could not even fill 50% of the seats after four rounds of counselling. Gian Sagar Dental College, Patiala, which was allowed an intake of 100 BDS seats for the 2021-22 academic year after a gap of four year, could fill just 16, lowest among all colleges.

The other colleges (all offering 100 seats each) with vacancies are Desh Bhagat, Gobindgarh (76); Rayat Bahra, Mohali (65); Dashmesh, Faridkot (55); NDC, Dera Bassi (51); GNDC, Sunam (51); Adesh, Bathinda (49); Genesis, Ferozepur (47); Sukhmani, Dera Bassi (37); Luxmi Bai, Patiala (34).

Even in recent years, private colleges have failed to fill BDS seats despite relaxations in admission criteria. In 2014, 104 of 1,190 seats remained vacant, with the number rising to 540 the next year.

Even after lowering the qualifying cut-off percentile by 10 points for each category, the number of vacant BDS seats stood at 355 in 2019-20 session, and jumped to 503 in 2021-22.

“Migration after Class 12 and lack of placements are the reasons for a large number of medical students not opting for dental courses. There is almost no job opportunity in the government sector, as government hospitals have only one post of dentist, which is not sufficient. There are no super-specialists in any civil hospital,” says former BFUHS vice-chancellor Dr SS Gill.

According to experts, nearly 600 dentists who graduate from state dental colleges annually have no industry to hire them. Most of them end up joining their seniors or faculty members in practice, earning as little as ₹5,000 a month.

ONLY FOUR OF 14 COLLEGES FILL ALL SEATS, 8 FAIL TO FILL EVEN 50%