Tamil Nadu Loses 3 Private Medical Colleges. Admissions Get Tougher

A few years ago, three Private Medical Colleges in the state had received a show cause notice, not to conduct admissions for the upcoming academic year. Even after a lot of request by the officials the MCI (Medical Council of India) has refused to grant permission to admit students.

By this, the state has already lost 3 colleges due to inadequate infrastructure and lack of faculty members. It seems like admissions in medical courses might get tougher this year.

Moreover, the MCI is yet to grant permission to the new government medical college in Tiruvanammalai, with the doubtful addition of 100 MBBS seats. With the fewer number of medical seats available, it is likely to be difficult to admit students as it produces fewer doctors at the end of the academics.

This in-turn makes the state's healthcare system less effective. Being a state with 42 medical colleges and hospitals which include 18 Government-run- medical colleges, also has few institutes which has been opposed by the MCI for conducting admissions.

An MCI official said "We have not decided on the course of action in this case, but if we have closed down colleges it is because they don't have the infrastructure or teachers required."

Madras Medical College Dean, Dr V Kanakasabai said "The cut-off point for seats increases by between 0.25 and 1 mark each year. Sometimes students miss medical seats by a few points. If we increase the number of seats, many meritorious students stand to benefit,".

However, Madras Medical College has also applied to MCI to increase its number of seats to 250, an addition of 85 seats.

Well, the details on how many colleges admit students, how many seats are increased and the number of seats lying vacant this year is yet to be revealed.