2,800 Medical, Dental Seats Lying Vacant in Private Colleges in Karnataka

Sonam Rana updated Content Curator updated

Content Curator updated

New Delhi: Approximately 2,800 management quota seats for the undergraduate (UG) and Postgraduate (PG) medical and dental courses are lying vacant in various private medical and dental colleges across Karnataka.

With the future of several medical students who have returned from Ukraine due to the Russia-Ukraine war is at stake, almost 2,800 seats are said to be lying vacant in the medical and dental colleges in Karnataka.

Earlier, in the 2021-22 academic session, there was no demand for 700 MBBS seats under management quota.

The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has completed its seat allotment process and surrendered unfilled seats to all the private medical colleges.

There are a total of 14,305 medical seats, including 10,260 UG and 4,045 PG seats in Karnataka.

The KEA is the seat allotment authority in the State and has successfully completed four rounds of seat allotment, including the mop-up round.

According to the latest reports, around 700 UG medical and 1,300 dental, and 600 PG medical and 200 PG dental seats remain unfilled, even after the completion of the final round allotment.

One of the main reasons for the low demand for dental courses is the lack of job opportunities, which has resulted in thousands of dental seats remaining vacant every year.

Last year, almost 1,200 management quota BDS and MDS seats were left vacant, while in 2021-22, 1,300 BDS and 200 MDS seats are vacant.

The expensive fees of management quota seats is also one of the prevalent reasons. The latest reports suggest that on an average, private medical colleges fix INR 40 lakh to INR 50 lakh as the fee for each MBBS seat and fees in the topmost colleges can go up to INR 80 lakh.

Further, the fees for PG medical seats cost over INR 1 crore, which explains the reason for 600 PG medical seats being vacant.

The high fees are also what was cited by several students as the reason they chose to pursue medical education in countries outside India, such as Ukraine, Poland, and Kyrgyzstan.

MR Jayaram, Honorary Secretary of Karnataka Private Medical and Dental Colleges Association, said that due to the high fees, management quota medical and dental seats remain vacant in some private medical colleges.

The medical and dental colleges must fix affordable fees for the students on the basis of infrastructure, quality of education, and facilities. Then, the students will opt for them.

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