Pvt dental colleges fail to fill BDS seats for 8th year in row

FARIDKOT: For the eighth year in row, private dental colleges in the state have failed to fill their sanctioned BDS seats, with almost every second seat vacant; of 1,050 seats in 13 private colleges, 503 are vacant (48%). This is despite the state government’s attempts to encourage admissions by relaxation in eligibility criteria for the course. One of the relaxations was that students from any part of the country were eligible for admission and also fee concessions that some colleges offered. With this, the number of students in BDS course increased.

In 2014, of 1,190 BDS seats, 104 remained vacant in dental, with the number increasing to 423 in 2015. Later, dental colleges recorded 540 and 516 vacant BDS seats in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

In 2017, 275 seats remained vacant of 1,230. In 2018, 201 BDS seats remained vacant. Even after lowering the qualifying cut-off percentile by 10 percentile for each category, the number of vacant BDS seats jumped to 355 in 2019-20 academic session. For this session, only six colleges of 15 have filled their seats, even after five rounds of counselling (an extended stray vacancy round concluded on Saturday).

In 2014, the then Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) vice-chancellor Dr SS Gill had written to the state government that admission criteria need to be relaxed.

“I had put a lot of effort to fill all seats in dental colleges, including private colleges, during my tenure. The lack of jobs for dentists is considered a major reason behind this. There are not many jobs for dentists in government sector, but the major problem in private sector is lack of skills. Private colleges have failed to inculcate required skill levels, so they have to work on minimal pay to attain it,” he added.

Nearly 800 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. Experts also blame students’ craze for going abroad.

“Due to lack of placements, a large number of medical students do not opt for dental courses. There is almost no job opportunity in the government sector, while pay in private sector is low,” says Dr Raj Bahadur, vice-chancellor, BFUHS.