LAHORE, Aug 25: Candidates securing 70 per cent marks in the FSc pre-medical or equivalent examinations will be eligible to take entry test for admission to medical and dental colleges for the session 2002-03. Earlier, the percentage was 65.
According to the admission policy 2002-03 approved by the Punjab government recently, tuition fee has been enhanced by 40 per cent.
It will increase the existing tuition fee from Rs486.5 per month (Rs5,842 per year) to Rs690 per month (Rs8,280 per year). Utility bills at the fixed rate of Rs15,000 per annum will be charged from each boarder.
The University of Engineering and Technology will again conduct the entry test despite complaints last year.
Admissions will be made on 1,621 allocated seats for the first year MBBS session 2002-03 in the seven medical colleges.
The break-up will be 1,111 on open merit, 162 on reserved basis. Another 348 additional seats will be filled on open merit for the academic session 2002-03 only.
ADMISSION SCHEDULE: The admission schedule will be announced on October 10 and the entry test will be held on December 15.
The Punjab medical and dental colleges admission board will declare the entry test results on January 1 next year.
The merit list of top 2,000 candidates will be displayed in all the seven medical and dental colleges in the province.
They will be required to submit their applications for admission to medical and dental colleges from January 3 to 10 next year.
The final list of 1,621 selected candidates will be displayed in colleges on January 17.
ENTRY TEST: The University of Engineering and Technology will conduct the entry test at one centre each in Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Bahawalpur.
There had been complaints last year regarding the conduct of entry test by the UET. On the basis of general satisfaction report by the admission board, the government has again approved that the UET will be the third party to conduct entry test.
The Punjab health department has, however, proposed that the UET should improve its master key to a near-perfection level, sign the declaration of results and keep the photocopies of the answer-sheets sealed in the Habib Bank.
It has also proposed that after establishment, the University of Health Sciences, Punjab, will conduct the entry test.
The two-and-a-half hours entry test will have 220 multiple choice questions (MCQs). The biology section will have 70 questions, physics and chemistry will have 60 each and English portion of the test will have 30 questions.
Each question will carry five marks and each wrong answer will minus one mark.
ENTRY TEST ELIGIBILITY: The government has enhanced the ceiling of marks obtained in FSc or equivalent examination to 70 per cent to lessen the number of candidates appearing for the entry test.
The intermediate examination 2002 results are likely to be announced early next month. The medical and dental colleges admission board expects about 10,000 applications this year. Around 13,000 students appeared in the entry test for 2001-02 academic session.
SEATS ALLOCATION: The Punjab government has allocated 1,111 seats for admission on open merit to the seven medical colleges in the province. The additional 348 seats will be divided among the seven colleges equally.
According to the break-up of 1,111 seats, the King Edward Medical College will have 171, the Allama Iqbal Medical College will have 165 and the Fatima Jinnah Medical College 135 seats. The Nishtar Medical College, Quaid-i-Azam Medical College, Punjab Medical College, and Rawalpindi Medical College will have 159 seats each.
As many as 67 seats in the FJMC will go to the federal government as its 50 per cent share in the college’s 135 seats.
Besides open merit seats, there are 162 reserved seats which include 12 seats for disabled students, seven (one for each college) for the Federally Administered Tribal Area, 28 for Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Northern Areas, 72 for foreign students under the Technical Assistance Programme (TAP), 28 for foreign students on self-finance basis and 15 on reciprocal (inter-provincial) basis.
The 72 reserved seats for foreign students under the TAP include seven seats (one for each college) for Afghan Refugee students and two seats — one each in the FJMC and the QMC — for Palestinian students.
PUNJAB CANDIDATES RESIDING ABROAD: The admission board has recommended that the candidates who have passed the MCAT with 80 per cent score will be eligible. However, the score should be communicated directly by the examination body to the admission board.
For SAT-I and SAT-II, 85 per cent score has been recommended.
SELF-FINANCE SCHEME: The admission board has not recommended the revival of self-finance seats in any medical college.
The health department has proposed the establishment of three medical colleges in Lahore, Sialkot and Rahim Yar Khan which would admit students on self-finance basis.
