After years, dental colleges in state likely to fill all BDS seats

In a discernible reversal of trend, all 16 dental colleges in the state are set to fill all their BDS course seats this time after many years. After three rounds of counselling by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) for filling 1,350 BDS seats, the university has declared only 17 BDS seats as vacant for the fourth round of counselling. The BFUHS is the nodal agency to make admission to all dental colleges.

Last year, 364 out of total 1,350 BDS seats were declared vacant by BFUHS after three rounds of counselling. In 2022, dental colleges across the state were facing difficulty in filling BDS seats as 616 slots were vacant even after five rounds of counselling. To attract more students, some dental colleges had offered up to 50 per cent discount or concession in tuition fee, while others uploaded false information about the admitted students on the Dental Council of India portal that year.

For the past many years, all professional colleges in the state had faced growing concerns about exodus of the youth to foreign shores as a large number of seats in those institutions remained vacant. There is a trend reversal since last year and the colleges have started getting more students.