Deemed Universities to Benefit from NEET PG 2025 Cut-Off Reduction, Raking in ₹2,000 Crore, ETHealthworld

Candidates who became eligible after the qualifying cutoff of NEET PG 2025 was lowered took seats worth almost Rs 2,000 crore in 48 medical colleges that are deemed universities. This is an indication of just how important lowering of cutoff was for these private colleges.

The government slashed the cutoff just before the third round of counselling saying that this would help fill up 18,000 seats lying vacant after the first two rounds especially in pre-clinical and para-clinical specialties. The data for the results of centralised counselling is available only for all-India quota seats and for all postgraduate seats in deemed university private medical colleges. The all-India quota is made up of 50% PG seats in about 300 government colleges. The remaining 50% is filled through counselling that happens at the state level, for which consolidated data is not available.

TOI analysed the data from allotment of seats in round 3 and the stray round of the centralised counselling, looking at only fresh allotments in the third round and all allotments in the stray round.

Candidates are not allowed to change or upgrade their preference after allotment in round 3 and leaving an allotted seat would mean being barred from further participation in counselling and forfeiture of the security deposit (Rs 25,000 for all-India quota seat and Rs 2 lakh for a deemed university seat). Joining a seat and then resigning could attract a seat-leaving penalty also.

The analysis showed that the annual tuition fees of the clinical seats filled in the third round by those with lowered cut off in deemed universities amounted to roughly Rs 550 crore. There are two category of seats in these colleges — management seats and NRI seats. Since PG courses are for three years, that would amount to about Rs 1,650 crore revenue lost if the seat went empty.

Tuition fees are highest for clinical specialties, especially for so-called high-demand ones like radiology, dermatology, obstetrics and gynaecology and general medicine. In these, the annual fees could be as high as Rs 70 lakh to Rs 1 crore or more. In the stray vacancy round, these colleges filled clinical specialty seats worth Rs 115 crore annually, or Rs 345 crore over the whole course.

In the all-India quota, none of the candidates who became eligible due to lowered cutoff got admission to clinical specialties, except those who came through the disability quota. In comparison, 970 candidates who became eligible through lowering of the cutoff got clinical specialties in the deemed university colleges in the third and stray rounds.

While the outrage over the reduction in cutoff was all about the reserved category getting its cutoff slashed to zero percentile, the allotment data from the two rounds shows that about 38% of over 1,200 all-India seats bagged by those with reduced cutoff were from the general category compared to 24% of OBCs, 25% SC and 14% ST. In the deemed university colleges, of the 1,770 seats bagged by those made eligible by lowering of the cut off, over two-thirds (1,224) were from the general category, while just 4.2% (75) and 0.2% (4) were from the SC and ST categories respectively.

The skew is even sharper in clinical seats in deemed university colleges, which have the highest tuition fees. Of the 973 clinical seats allotted in the last two rounds that went to those made eligible by the lowered cutoff, 78% (759) were bagged by general category candidates, 19% by OBCs, 2.7% by SCs and 0.3% by STs.

In comparison, of the 160 plus clinical seats from the all-India quota, 42% went to the general category, 40% to OBCs, 17% to SCs and 2% to STs. Clearly, more general category candidates benefitted from the lowered cutoff than those from the reserved categories.

Share in candidates who got in through lowered cut off (%)

Share in clinical seats filled by those who got in through lowered cutoff (%)

*Each category includes PWD candidates of that category

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