Mumbai: Only 40% of the total seats in the two newly-formed private universities in health sciences will be available to Maharashtra-domiciled students, while the remaining 60% will be open to students from across India. This conversion from private medical colleges to universities will result in a loss of over 350 seats for state aspirants, claimed parents and activists.
While the state CET Cell will fill the 40% seats, the universities have sought permission for the remaining 60% to be filled through the Centre’s Medical Counselling Committee (MCC). The two universities, Lata Mangeshkar University (earlier NKP Salve), Nagpur, and Dr Balasaheb Vikhe Patil University (earlier Dr VVPF Medical College), Ahilyanagar, have not been included in the seat matrix released for the first round of admissions that began on Wednesday, leaving students confused about its admission process and availability of seats.
Lata Mangeshkar University will also include Ranjeet Deshmukh Dental College and, therefore, will have only 40% seats for state students.
The process of converting these colleges into universities is still on and so they have not been included in the first round, said an official from the CET cell. As per the provisions of the Maharashtra Private Universities Act, only 40% of seats in private universities will be reserved for state students, he added.
Medical education secretary Dheeraj Kumar said both the proposed universities requested that the 40% domicile seats be filled by the state CET cell and the remaining 60% be filled at all-India level by the directorate general of health services’ MCC. The state has written to the MCC. He added that the universities have been asked to declare the fee and communicate it to the state, CET cell and the MCC to enable them to join from the second round. “They have assured us that they would communicate this at the earliest,” said the secretary.
Parents are upset with the last-minute decisions. “They could have started the process earlier or should have waited for the next year to give them permissions for private universities. There is no clarity on how the admissions will take place, or the fee or if it will be the same for both state and all-India seats. Such delays only create confusion in the decision making process for aspirants,” said parent representative Sudha Shenoy.
