LAHORE: All provincial governments are awaiting a notification by the federal government to enforce the MBBS and BDS (Admission, House Job and Internship) Regulations 2018 to introduce a centralised admission system to public and private medical institutions.

The regulations were drafted and proposed on the basis of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and the Pakistan Association of Private Medical and Dental Institutions. A consensus had been reached for centralised admissions to both public and private sector medical and dental colleges following a series of meetings after Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar took suo motu notice.

According to the MoU (a copy of which is available with Dawn), the “admitting universities” of the provinces would be eligible to make centralised admissions to all medical and dental colleges. In Punjab, the situation has raised questions as the mandatory entrance test for public sector medical colleges is going to be conducted on Sept 23.

Similarly, the University of Health Sciences (UHS) has invited online applications from candidates for admission to government institutions from Sept 30 on the basis of entrance test results.

Universities, colleges in a fix as entrance test less than a week away

According to the proposed policy, the admission process for private medical and dental colleges would start a week after the completion of the same for government institutions.

However, tension gripped students as well as administrations of private colleges, as they did not have sufficient time to initiate the admission process with the new regulations yet to be notified by the federal government.

In Punjab, according to an official, there are around 45 medical and dental colleges in private sector with nearly 3,000 MBBS and 500 BDS allocated seats.

The PMDC’s regulations propose elimination of the monopoly of affiliating universities for admissions to private colleges. The regulations state that only the admitting universities would be authorised to make admissions to private medical institutions.

In Punjab, the role has been designated to the UHS, he said, adding that the regulations also propose that students submitting fake documents would be barred from admission to any medical institution for seven years.

Regarding financial sustainability, the regulations mention that at the time of application, an applicant will submit his/her wealth statement equivalent to five-year tuition fee, income tax return of either of the parents/guardians to the admitting university.

“Further, the students being offered the admission shall have to submit insurance certificate to ensure the payment of fees for the remaining duration of the course in case of demise of guardians/parents,” the official said quoting the regulations.

The regulations also say that Pakistani students with A-level qualification would not be eligible for admissions on foreign quota to private medical and dental colleges. Only the foreign students would be entitled to these seats. In case these seats remained unfilled, they would be converted into open-merit slots.

UHS Vice Chancellor Prof Javed Akram said his varsity had made all necessary arrangements to initiate the centralised admissions system that was likely to be notified next week. The UHS had already constituted separate committees comprising experts for admissions to both public and private medical institutions of Punjab.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2018