3 days ago
NMC yet to give permission for enhancement of medical seats; medical seat matrix delayed
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-2025) results will be out in a few days, and this time, the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has made preparations to conduct the Common Entrance Test (CET-2025) and NEET counselling simultaneously for admission to various professional courses, including medical and engineering.
However, even though the deadline given by KEA has expired, the Department of Medical Education (DME) has not submitted the medical seat matrix.
It has been learnt that the reason for the delay is that the National Medical Commission (NMC) has not yet given permission for the enhancement of undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) medical seats in the State's medical colleges for 2025-26.
The DME had submitted a proposal to the NMC in March 2025 for the enhancement of a total of 800 MBBS and 700 PG medical seats for the State. However, even after three months of submitting the request, permission has not been granted for the seat enhancement.
The last date for submitting the seat matrix was June 4, 2025.
The Technical Education Department has submitted the seat matrix, according to which a total of 69,717 government quota engineering seats are available for 2025-26. This year, there has been an increase of 7,650 (11.9%) engineering seats, all of them Computer Science and related courses.
Tentative seat matrix
However, the DME has already prepared a tentative medical seat matrix for 2025-26, including the number of additional seats proposed in the request submitted to the NMC and the seats available in government medical college proposed to be established in Ramanagara and the Farookh Academy of Medical Education in Mysuru starting this year.
There are a total of 71 medical colleges in the State, out of which 12,395 MBBS seats will be available this year. In addition, 3,355 dental seats are available in 45 dental colleges, 39,595 BSc Nursing seats in 650 nursing colleges, 16,441 Allied Health Sciences seats in 202 Allied Health Sciences Colleges, and 5,710 seats in 120 Physiotherapy colleges.
In addition, 4,027 PG medical seats are available in 47 postgraduate medical colleges, 846 MDS seats in 31 postgraduate dental colleges, 4,772 seats in 204 postgraduate nursing colleges, 1,217 seats in 43 PG allied health sciences colleges, and 819 seats in 41 PG physiotherapy colleges.
Speaking to The Hindu, Rathod, director, Directorate of Medical Education said, 'It is not known why the NMC is delaying the increase in seats in medical courses. Already, the NMC has served show-cause notices to 22 government medical colleges and several private medical colleges that are facing problems, including non-appointment of necessary faculty. We have given an appropriate response to the NMC in this regard. So, we are hoping that we may get permission to increase the UG and PG medical seats before the NEET results. The matrix will be submitted as soon as the NMC gives permission.'
