FARIDKOT – There are no takers for NRI quota seats in postgraduate (PG) medical and dental courses in various private colleges across the state. The reason: High tuition fee.
Against the availability of 24 medical and 16 dental postgraduate NRI quotas seats in private colleges in the state, only four candidates appeared for the entrance test conducted by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) on March 27. Out of those four persons, only one could qualify the test to secure admission in a PG course.
“There was no candidate for postgraduate dental courses, so the BFUHS did not conduct the test,” said Dr DS Sidhu, BFUHS Registrar.
In private medical and dental colleges, 15 per cent seats are reserved for NRIs. These seats are filled on the basis of merit in a special test conducted by the BFUHS.
As per rules, any candidate wanting admission under the NRI quota needs to obtain provisional eligibility/equivalency certificate from the BFUHS.
Sources said high tuition fee for these courses was the main reason behind few takers for these seats. A student under the NRI quota has to pay $ 1.25 lakh for a three-year clinical course. Moreover, there was an apprehension that the fee might be hiked further this year on the pattern of government colleges.
For MD and MS courses at Government Medical College, Faridkot, a three-fold increase in fee was effected around a month ago. The revision of the fee at two other government and three private medical colleges in the state is underway.
