Chandigarh: Punjab’s medical and dental colleges continue to face a shortage of eligible applicants for seats under the NRI quota. After the first round of counselling and admissions, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) received only six applications for 381 MBBS and BDS seats declared vacant.
Of these vacant seats, 167 are MBBS seats across 12 medical colleges, while 214 are BDS seats across 16 dental colleges in the state.
The response was weak in the previous round as well. Against 431 vacant MBBS and BDS seats, only 63 candidates had applied. Just 50 eventually took admission — 47 for MBBS and three for BDS.
As a result, a large number of NRI quota seats remained vacant, forcing colleges to participate in a second round of counselling. The latest figures suggest that the situation has not improved significantly.
MBBS NRI quota fee stands at $110,000
NRI quota seats are considered an important source of revenue for Punjab’s medical and dental colleges because of their substantially higher fees.
An NRI candidate has to pay US$110,000 for the entire MBBS course and US$44,000 for BDS, according to the figures cited in the report. These fees are considerably higher than those charged under the government and management quotas.
The widening gap between the number of available seats and applicants has therefore raised concerns for colleges that depend heavily on NRI quota admissions for revenue, with institutions facing a significant decline in earnings from this category.
