It seems like the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Exam - Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2024 is rife with uncertainty and speculation.
This time, aspirants, medical educators and medicos alike are expressing worry about the number of seats remaining vacant even after two rounds of admissions counselling.
With the third round of NEET-PG 2024 Counselling starting today, December 26, about 15,000 to 16,000 seats remain vacant.
While organisations like the Indian Medical Association - Junior Doctors’ Network (IMA-JDN) wrote to the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, JP Nadda demanding the reduction of cut-offs in NEET-PG 2024, a few medical colleges reduced their fees of their MD (Doctor of Medicine) and MS (Master of Surgery) courses for the 2024-25 academic year to close the gap.
This situation has also reignited discussions about introducing a zero percentile cut-off, similar to 2023, to ensure that seats are filled.
However, the main question remains: Will the vacancies in MD/MS seats be filled by the Third Round, Mop-up Round, and Stray Vacancy Rounds? Will the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) and the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) introduce a fourth round of counselling to fill vacant seats?
An extra round unlikely, experts say
Many experts say that the MCC conducting another round of counselling, apart from the Mop-up Round and Stray Vacancy Round, is unlikely.
“Most of the vacancies are in pre-medical and paramedical specialisations, and they usually get filled towards the end of the entire counselling process,” says Dr Aravind Pandey, Associate Professor of Anatomy, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal and Deputy Director, Student Affairs (Health Sciences) Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal.
A few experts even hint at the MCC conducting an “open round”, in case there are any more vacant seats even after the Stray Vacancy round.
“The MCC would not announce a fourth round, as it doesn’t want to prolong the counselling process any further,” says Dr Sourabh Sharma, Ophthalmologist and Teaching Faculty with the DAMS eMedicoz learning portal.
However, he adds that participation in the open round would be a gamble for aspirants who are not satisfied with the seats they have been allotted, as they would have to forfeit them.
“There’s no guarantee that they would get the seats of their preference in the open round either,” he says.
Course preferences a major role in vacancies
At the outset, experts argue that the primary reason for these vacancies is the general trend of candidates disfavouring non-clinical specialisations.
“Candidates prefer specialities that grant them clinical exposure and patient interaction. Non-clinical courses, like pathology, anatomy or microbiology open doors to research and teaching opportunities, but not clinical ones,” Dr Sharma says.
Adding to this, Dr Pandey laments that even teaching positions for these subjects are not being filled as enrollments in these courses are less.
Sometimes, candidates choose not to join their PG courses even after getting a seat, as they are not satisfied with the specialisation, department, or college. “Due to this, they want to wait for another year and appear for NEET PG next year,” Dr Sharma says.
Counselling delays leaving aspirants in a dilemma
Beyond course preferences, Dr Sharma opines that the delayed announcement of the NEET-PG 2024 Counselling, and the ongoing state counselling delays in states like Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, and Kerala are also contributing to the huge number of vacancies in PG medical seats.
These delays are due to candidates finding discrepancies in the merit list, or the admission policies of the state and approaching courts for relief.
“Even though All India Counselling is being conducted as per schedule, a majority of aspirants who didn't rank high enough to appear for the All India Counselling tend to choose state counselling instead as they believe that they have better chances there. They are currently in the dilemma of whether to wait till the state counselling begins, appear for the ongoing All India Counselling, or try their luck in a private medical college,” he explains.
However, even admission to private medical colleges has its challenges, as the tuition fees amount to lakhs of rupees, Dr Pandey says.
“Most candidates end up taking loans to gain admission into these colleges but find that the returns don’t align with the cost of their education. On one hand, the number of seats in government medical colleges are limited and on the other, private medical colleges are hard to access,” he says.
To ensure that such vacancies do not exist, he suggests re-examining the NEET-PG examination and admissions process to ensure that the exam is more streamlined.
“These are decisions to be taken at a policy level. Thorough introspection and re-evaluation is necessary to ensure that there are no vacancies,” he says.
