Countless students hoping to become doctors dedicate day and night to preparing for the NEET examination. This year as well, more than eleven lakh students crossed the minimum NEET UG cutoff to participate in the counseling process. However, startling data emerged during the final stray vacancy round of counseling. While medical seats have been filled in several parts of the country, eight hundred twenty-four MBBS seats remained vacant in the deemed universities of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Exorbitant Tuition Fees Act as the Main Barrier
The vacancy of these MBBS seats is not due to any technical reason, but rather because of exceptionally high tuition fees. The annual fee for MBBS in these selected deemed universities ranges from twenty-three lakh to thirty-five lakh rupees. Throughout the four-and-a-half-year course, students end up spending crores of rupees solely on tuition fees. According to data from the Medical Counseling Committee, three thousand four hundred twenty-six seats were vacant across the country at the start of the stray round, and while many were filled, several major colleges in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry faced severe vacancy rates.
Institutions Most Affected by Vacant Seats
Sri Sathya Sai Medical College in Chennai recorded seventy-five percent vacant seats. The negative impact of high fees and expensive private institutions was most severe on selected colleges in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Each medical college listed below had two hundred fifty seats, but students avoided them due to the massive financial burden
- Sri Sathya Sai Medical College: Located in Chennai, this institution faced the highest vacancy at seventy-five percent, leaving one hundred eighty-eight seats empty.
- Meenakshi Medical College: Situated in Kanchipuram, forty-seven percent or one hundred seventeen seats remained unfilled.
- Mahatma Gandhi Medical College: This Puducherry institution recorded thirty-seven percent or ninety-two vacant seats.
- Sri Balaji Medical College: In Chromepet, thirty-three percent or eighty-two seats received no admissions.
Prominent institutions like SRM, Saveetha, and Chettinad also reported large numbers of vacant seats. Reports indicate that annual fees in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry deemed universities range from twenty-three lakh to thirty-five lakh rupees. In contrast, the average fee in the rest of India is approximately twenty-two lakh sixty-eight thousand rupees. Maharashtra deemed universities average twenty-four lakh fifty-eight thousand rupees, while Karnataka averages twenty lakh eighty-five thousand rupees. Consultants note that fee differences reach nearly twenty-one lakh rupees over the course duration, prompting students to turn away from these colleges.
Cutoffs Plunge Amid Financial Hesitation
Even as high fees left seats empty, institutions that offered minor fee relief saw their cutoff ranks plummet drastically. For instance, the closing cutoff rank at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research dropped sharply from seven lakh thirty thousand to ten lakh sixty-eight thousand. This demonstrates that students wanted admission despite lower scores, but hesitated due to the overwhelming financial strain.
Political Reactions and Demands for Caps
This situation has triggered strong reactions within political circles. DMK Rajya Sabha MP P. Wilson criticized these institutions strongly, labeling them as profit-driven entities focused solely on earnings. He demanded that the central government immediately impose a strict ceiling on the tuition fees of deemed universities so that medical education does not remain a privilege exclusively for wealthy families.
Lessons for Future Aspirants
This serves as an important lesson for students planning to appear for the NEET UG exam in upcoming years. Aspirants must understand that they should not apply solely based on a college name, but must prioritize their budget and financial planning above all else.
