Punjab colleges offer discount to fill 50% BDS seats
Balwant Garg
Faridkot, December 22
Eleven of the total 16 dental colleges have failed to fill more than 50 per cent of BDS course seats even after four rounds of counselling. As 637 of the 1,350 seats have been declared vacant for the fifth and last round of counselling, some dental colleges have started offering a huge discount in fee to attract students.
Punjab has 14 private and two government dental colleges. Only three private and two government colleges have been able to fill all their BDS seats. In 11 private colleges, the number of vacant seats is 637 out of 1,000 seats.
Rebate goes up to 50 per cent
- In 11 private colleges, 637 seats out of 1,000 are lying vacant
- Some colleges are offering 50% discount in tuition fee
- Some colleges have even engaged private coaching centres and agents to attract students
- They are also getting attractive ‘commission’ for providing services to colleges
The Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), the nodal agency to make admission on all MBBS and BDS seats, has invited students for the stray round of physical counselling to fill these seats at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College in Faridkot on December 27.
Desperate to fill the maximum seats, some private colleges have entered into a competition to attract students by offering them significant tuition fee discounts. Some colleges have even engaged private coaching centres and agents to attract the students with a discounted fee structure for this four-year academic course. The agents and coaching centres are also getting attractive ‘commission’ for providing their services to colleges.
The BDS course fee in two government colleges is Rs 3.80 lakh. In private colleges, there are three categories of seats – government quota, management quota and NRI quota. For the government quota, the course fee is Rs 7,65,765 and for the management quota seats, this is Rs 10,21,020. For the NRI quota (15 per cent of total seats), the fee structure in all dental colleges is $44,000.
There are 194 NRI quota seats and 159 seats in the 11 dental colleges that are lying vacant.
Before the starting of the stray round of counselling, these colleges are hoping for lowering percentile for the qualification of the BDS course admission during the academic session, which will help them fill vacant seats.
The authorities of many dental colleges are trying to lure students with a promise of “better quality” dental education with high discount in the tuition fee.
“We have no problem if the colleges offer discounts to students. The fee should not be more than what has been fixed by the Department of Medical Education and Research, said a senior functionary of the BFUHS.
