248 medical seats up for grabs in the state

217 OF 243 VACANT SEATS IN PRIVATE INSTITUTES WERE FROM INSTITUTIONAL QUOTA (WHICH FORMS 15% OF TOTAL SEATS), WHEREAS THE REMAINING 26 VACANT SEATS WERE FROM 85% STATE QUOTA

MUMBAI: After three rounds of admissions, including a mop-up round for graduate seats in medical colleges, the Directorate of Medical Education & Research (DMER) surrendered around 250 vacant medical seats late on Monday evening.

While five of these seats that belonged to government-run institutes were re-allocated in the second and final mop-up round on Monday evening itself, all 243 vacant seats in private medical institutes were surrendered to the respective institutes.

“We conduct only three rounds of admissions for private medical institutes. So all the remaining vacant seats can now be filled up by institutes at an individual level,” said Dr Pravin Shingare, director, DMER.

A total of 217 of the 243 vacant seats in state medical institutes were from the institutional quota (which forms 15% of the total seats), whereas the remaining 26 seats were from the 85% state quota, said the DMER website on Monday.

While colleges can now admit students at the institute level, many institutes are worried that they will not have enough time to do so.

“The last date of admission is August 31 and we were handed over the seats on August 28. There’s no time to fill the vacant seats anymore,” said a spokesperson of a private medical institute in Pune.

“Seat vacancy can be attributed to various reasons, including the location of the institute as well as the high fees NRI students are expected to pay for admissions under the institutional quotas,” said Shingare.

He added that the final list of seat vacancy, if any, in dental colleges will be released by September 6.