Colleges slash annual fee to fill vacant MDS seats

Balwant Garg

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Tribune News Service

Faridkot, May 30

Some private dental colleges in the state are offering rebates ranging from 15 to 40 per cent in the annual fee for vacant postgraduate course in dental science (MDS).

As many as 79 seats out of 100 are vacant in 11 colleges after the first round of counseling. The final counseling to fill these seats starts here tomorrow.

While Adesh Institute of Dental Science, Bathinda has offered a 15 per cent rebate in its annual fee, Dasmesh Dental College, Faridkot, has offered a cut off of 23 to 40 per cent.

Lowering the annual fee for dental specialties courses from Rs 5.85 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh-Rs 5 lakh, both Adesh and Dasmesh dental colleges offered this reduced fee package to encourage students to get admission in PG courses.

The fee has been reduced to encourage meritorious students to opt for specialty in dentistry, said Dr SPS Sodhi, principal, Dashmesh Dental College.

The cut-off for admission to MDS through the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test has already been reduced by 7.5 percentile points. Other dental colleges too plan to announce the rebate before counseling at Baba Farid University of Health Sciences Faridkot on Wednesday, revealed sources.

The first counselling for such seats was held on April 15 and 49 candidates were selected provisionally. In the past month, many of them have opted out after the Union Ministry of Health reduced the percentile for MD and MS courses.