Irregularities in admissions: PMC takes action against 57 medical & dental colleges
The PMC has suspended admissions of 28 colleges while admissions of 36 medical colleges are canceled.
Islamabad: The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has taken action against 57 private medical and dental colleges across Pakistan that were allegedly violating on of various stipulations of the Admission Regulations (Amended) 2020.
The action has been taken in pursuance of the complaints received by the PMC regarding the irregularities in the admission process.
These measures were taken after the regulatory body completed its assessment into the numerous complaints it had received against 69 colleges during their admission processes.
The PMC has also suspended the admissions of 28, while admissions of 36 medical colleges are canceled. Moreover, two medical colleges are directed to refund the excessive fee collected from the students.
Twenty-two colleges, including Sahara Medical College, Rawal Institute of Health Sciences, Muhammad Medical College, did not display merit lists before the admissions. These colleges had asked for fee deposits before displaying merit lists and prioritised students with strong financial backgrounds.
Low merit students who had deposited the fees were given higher marks for the interviews during the admission process. Lastly, these colleges conducted the same interview for both the MBBS and BDS program.
Frontier Medical College had given admission to a student in the BDS program when, in reality, the student had not applied for the BDS program.
In addition, 35 colleges had given admission to applicants from the waiting list (new or replacement of transferred students) after 8th March 2021.
Muhammad College of Medicine had taken a lump sum fee for the entire five-year program or they had taken a bank guarantee for four years in addition to a one-year fee advance. While Frontier Medical College had charged a fee that was more than the pre-disclosed fee structure.
Meanwhile, four colleges did not display their merit lists in accordance with PMC Admission Regulations. Students were given a maximum of three days’ time from January 26 to February 2, 2021 to deposit the fee. Failure in doing so resulted in the cancellation of their slot.
To address these violations, PMC shall advertise admissions for these colleges again, where PMC merit will be followed. The cost of advertisement for this re-admission process shall be borne by the college. The lowest merit on the college’s admission list will be 80 percent of the total marks according to the admission criteria of PMC.
Students who did not get admission to the college will be notified to apply within 5 days after the advertisement is published. If the student fulfils the criteria, they shall be given two days to deposit the annual fee of the college to accept the admission.
If any student is admitted to the college through this process, the admission of the student at the lowest merit shall stand cancelled.
PMC officials informed that these decisions were taken after a comprehensive review of candidate data of each student having passed the stage of admission interviews in private colleges to ensure they met the selection criteria on merit.
The Pakistan Medical Commission is committed to setting standards of excellence and continues to work towards implementing them in every medical and dental institute across Pakistan, both for postgraduate and undergraduate education, said the officials during the press conference.
