Over 450 MBBS seats in 10 deemed univs go vacant

Chennai: More than 450 MBBS seats in 10 deemed universities, including five in Tamil Nadu and four in Puducherry, were vacant after three rounds of counselling by the medical counselling committee of the directorate general of health services, New Delhi. These seats are likely to remain vacant if aspirants do not opt for them in the stray round, which will be the last phase of counselling, MCC officials said.The medical counselling committee conducted three rounds of counselling for all seats in 51 deemed universities across the country. So far, 7,922 of the 8,378 MBBS seats have been filled. Nearly 80% of the seats at Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute in Chennai – 198 out of 250 seats – were vacant after three rounds of counselling. At the Bhaarath Medical College 58 out of the 150 seats were vacant. At Sree Balaji Medical College and Sri Lakhshmi Narayana Medical College 47 and 45 seats were vacant. While nine out of the 10 universities that had vacant seats were either in TN or Puducherry, Gitam Institute of Medical Sciences and Research in Vizag had 31 out of the 150 seats vacant. “Seats in newer colleges with higher fees are most likely to remain vacant,” said Manickavel Arumugam, a student counsellor. “Seats in established colleges with good NIRF rankings and new colleges with annual fees less than 20 lakh were taken,” he added.MCC officials said that if students who are allotted these seats do not join the colleges, the seats will be considered vacant and be added to the seat matrix for stray vacancy. “The stray round is the last round of counselling by the agency and seats that remain vacant after that will be declared vacant. Unlike previous years we will not return the seats to the colleges for on campus admissions,” he said.