No takers for MDS NRI quota seats in Punjab
THE FULL COURSE FEE OF US $ 1,00,000 (₹83 LAKH) DETERRENT FOR STUDENTS TO APPLY FOR NRI QUOTA
There seem to be no takers for the NRI quota seats in Master of Dental Surgery (MDS) in the first round of counselling conducted by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS).
No applications have been received for the 12 NRI quota seats available in seven private dental colleges in the state.
An official in the medical education department said that most of these seats go vacant every year due to the exorbitant fee and will be ultimately turned into general category seats after two rounds of counselling. “The main reason why there are few takers for NRI quota seats in MDS is that the tuition fee is very high. In addition, students also have to bear many other expenses during their course, making it a highly expensive course,” said the above-quoted official, pleading anonymity.
The full course fee for an NRI quota comes to around US $1,00,000 (₹83 lakh) in all dental colleges.
Last week, the BFUHS started the counselling for admissions to the MDS courses at 12 dental colleges in Punjab. On Wednesday, the Faridkot-based university announced a provisional allotment list of candidates. BFUHS has allotted MDS seats to 98 candidates in the first round of counselling. There are 147 MDS state quota seats in 12 government and private dental colleges in the state.
As per the seat matrix released by BFUHS, two government dental colleges at Amritsar and Patiala offer 24 MDS, which include 13 state quota seats and 11 All-India Quota (AIQ) seats.
The admission for AIQ seats is conducted by the medical counselling committee (MCC) through a central process. Meanwhile, 10 private dental colleges offer 134 MDS seats. As per the government notification for an MDS course, a student pays around ₹4.5 lakh at a government college, while it costs around ₹17.55 lakh at private colleges for the full course.