Bengaluru: With counselling ending on Saturday, 783 postgraduate medical seats — or 16% — have remained unfilled in Karnataka.Some 4,773 seats were available for counselling through Karnataka Examinations Authority. Around 14,400 students registered for the counselling and over 10,000 entered options for medical PG through KEA.According to experts, several factors have contributed to the vacancy: Addition of 967 seats in one single year, long counselling cycles and most of these seats are under management quota with annual fees ranging from Rs 25,000 for an anatomy seat to Rs 1.3 crore for a dermatology seat in private colleges. What makes this year’s trends different is that seats in coveted streams are lying vacant. For instance, there were 500 general medicine seats available, of which 37 are still vacant. In MD radiodiagnosis, 35 of the 287 seats found no takers. In general surgery, 11 of 425 seats went without enrolments. Dermatology had 15 of 196 seats and paediatrics had 25 of 362 seats vacant.Pre- and para-clinical seats had only a handful of takers. Only eight students took up anatomy seats, of the total 119 seats available. Twenty students opted for physiology, 21 for biochemistry, and 70 for pharmacology. Students showed better interest in pathology, with 226 students opting for it.Compare this with previous year’s admissions. In 2024-25, there were 3,806 medical PG seats available through KEA counselling. Of these, 3,378 were allotted, leaving 428 seats vacant. It’s a 10% vacancy. All the vacant seats that year were in pre- and para-clinical programmes. The trend was the same in 2023 too, when 478 seats were vacant — all from pre and para clinical.There was an increase of 967 seats in a single year this time. “The mindset of students applying for MBBS and MD is different. In MBBS, at whichever stage seats are added, they get filled up. Not with PG. From what we observed, the seats added in the middle of counselling do not find many takers. PG students charted out their career paths,” said SNVL Narasimha Raju, chairman, The Oxford Educational Institutions.“Counselling takes a very long time amid court cases and other delays. There is very little gap between one counselling and the next year’s exam. So students decide to prepare better for the next year’s exam, rather than pay for the high-fee category seat this year. Thus, the NRI/management seats are left vacant in many institutions,” he added.“This time, there was an increase in the number of seats. Most vacant seats are in the management quota. These fees are so high that it is out of reach for many students. It is sad that seats are going vacant even when there are hundreds of students repeating the exam, vying for those seats. One way to do it is to subsidise the management seats and make it more affordable for the students,” said Bhagavan BC, vice-chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences.“All the rounds of counselling are over, unless the National Medical Commission permits more,” said Islavuddeen Gadyal, administrative officer, KEA.BOXES: 2024-2025 PG medical Subject – Vacant Seats Anatomy – 98 Physiology – 87 Biochemistry – 87 Pharmacology – 62 Microbiology – 68 Community Medicine – 19 Forensic Medicine – 48 Diploma in Public Health – 2 Total – 471 2025-26 PG medical Course – Intake – Vacant Seats Anatomy – 119 – 111 Physiology – 117 – 97 Biochemistry – 113 – 92 Pharmacology – 123 – 53 Pathology – 265 – 39 Microbiology – 130 – 99 Community Medicine – 143 – 63 Forensic Medicine – 77 – 47 Dermatology – 196 – 15 Paediatrics – 362 – 25 General Medicine – 500 – 37 Radio Diagnosis – 287 – 35 Respiratory Medicine – 87 – 4 Emergency Medicine – 74 – 1 Orthopaedics – 358 – 28 Anaesthesia – 443 – 3 General Surgery – 425 – 11 Obstetrics and Gynaecology – 362 – 18 Diploma in Clinical Pathology – 2 – 2 Diploma in Public Health – 3 – 3 Total – 4,186 – 783
