Med registrations dip by 9K, experts blame delay
MUMBAI: Pre-admission registrations for undergraduate health science courses including MBBS and BDS have witnessed a drop by a few thousand applications this year. Figures shared by t he state common entrance test (CET) cell – the admission authority – revealed that only 55,674 candidates completed the process by uploading the necessary documents and paying fees by January 5 which was the deadline. This is nearly 9,000 applications lower than the 64,645 candidates who completed the registration process in the previous academic year.
In a bid to encourage more registrations, the CET cell on Thursday decided to extend the registration process by another five days till January 10. As per the new schedule, the first provisional merit list will now be released on January 13.
“We have received queries from many students who could not complete the process either because they made errors while filling the online form or are still awaiting appropriate documents to attach with their form. In order to give such students more time to complete registrations, we have decided to extend the deadline,” said a senior official from the state CET cell. He added that the admission authority hopes that this extra time will be enough to encourage thousands more to complete the process.
In 2019, 59,000 students registered for undergraduate medical courses, vying for 5,000 seats. While CET officials hope to attract thousands more for admissions over the next four days, experts have blamed the dip in registrations on the delay in commencement of admission process which left not a single admission of UG or PG medical students in 2021 altogether.
“Not only was the overall admission process delayed but simple registration for students and announcement of the state merit list was delayed in Maharashtra by four months. In the meantime, several students opted for admissions in neighbouring states where the process began in November itself,” said Sudha Shenoy, parent and activist. She added that in some cases, especially students with lower National Eligibility-cumEntrance Test (NEET-UG) scores, admissions were taken in other courses including engineering and pharmacy to avoid further delay.