KATHMANDU, Jan 5: After leaving aspiring MBBS students guessing for more than two months, Tribhuvan University is all set to decide the allocation of MBBS seats for private medical colleges under the Institute of Medicine ((IOM) within a week.

“We are going to decide the long pending issue of allocation of MBBS seats within a week after legal consultations,” said Prof Dr Tirtha Raj Khaniya, vice chancellor of TU, on Friday. “The decision can be taken on Sunday or within coming Friday,” he added.

TU, which intended to provide MBBS enrollment seats to the medical colleges as in the past, was dissatisfied with IOM and Nepal Medical Council (NMC) for their decision to decrease the number of MBBS seats in private medical colleges for the current academic session, citing poor management and infrastructure. 

After IOM's decision on the allocation of seats for the medical colleges, the NMC should correct it and recommend it to TU for final approval. Until TU decides the matter, the colleges cannot admit new MBBS students. However, TU is yet to take a decision on the matter though the NMC recommended it to TU over two months ago. The MBBS classes were scheduled to begin from November 17, last year.

There are seven medical colleges under the IOM, which has allocated a total of 660 seats for enrolment in MBBS this year. According to the IOM, it has recommended 90 seats for KIST Medical College (Lalitpur), 100 seats for Nepal Army Medical College (Kathmandu Valley), 80 seats for Janaki Medical College (Janakpur), 90 seats for Gandaki Medical College (Pokhara), 90 seats for National Medical College (Birgunj), 100 seats for Universal College of Medical Science (Bhairahawa), and 90 seats for Chitwan Medical College (Chitwan). Besides these seats, IOM has the capacity of 75 seats for MBBS enrollment.

“It's already late to begin the new academic session,” said Prof Dr JP Agrawal, dean at IOM. “So, we are starting enrollment counseling and orientation for the aspiring students from Sunday,” said Dr Agrawal. “They will be enrolled within eight days,” he added.

IOM on December 4 published the results of MBBS entrance test, which was cancelled on November 19 and re-conducted on December 2. The first entrance test taken on October 14 was cancelled, following the controversy of cheating in the exam by using electronic devices. 
A total of 46 percent examinees received the minimum 50 percent marks required to get the admission in the MBBS course. A total of 7,298 students appeared in the entrance tests taken on December 2 and 1,672 (18 percent) did not attend the test. 

 
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