KATHMANDU, Dec 18: Tribhuvan University (TU) has said it is "quite dissatisfied" with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and Nepal Medical Council (NMC) for slashing MBBS seats at private medical colleges.
"We have asked the IOM and NMC why they slashed the MBBS seats in medical colleges after the medical colleges objected to the reduction of MBBS seats," said Prof Dr Tirtha Raj Khaniya, vice chancellor of TU.
"It's an internal issue of TU," VC Khaniya said. "Why do you show interest in it?" he answered with a question when asked why TU was delaying to take a decision on the issue. "They slashed MBBS seats from 100 to 90 at colleges," he said, adding, "150 seats were allocated to these colleges before the agreement with Dr Govinda KC."
MBBS classes at IOM delayed by a month
After IOM's decision on the allocation of seats for the medical colleges, the NMC should correct and recommend it to TU for the final approval. Until TU does that, the students cannot get admission in the MBBS course. However, TU is yet to take a decision on it though the NMC recommended it to TU two months ago. The MBBS classes were scheduled to begin from November 17.
"We recommended to TU the allocation of seats for MBBS enrollment as per IOM's decision. The NMC has not changed anything in IOM's proposal," said Dr Dilip Sharma, registrar at the NMC.
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 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). In addition to these seats, IOM has the capacity of 75 seats for MBBS enrollment.
"The IOM Council decided to decrease the number of seats after the medical colleges did not meet the criteria," said Prof Dr JP Agrawal, dean at IOM. "We responded to TU's query about slashing the MBBS seats about 10 days ago," he added. "But TU has delayed a decision on it, affecting the MBBS students."
IOM on December 4 published the results of MBBS entrance test, which was canceled on November 19 and retaken on December 2. The first entrance test taken on October 14 was canceled, 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 MBBS. 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. Among them, 3,298 Nepali students and 33 foreign students passed the entrance exam.
However, TU has yet to take a decision on the allocation of seats for admission in MBBS course in the current academic session that is scheduled to begin from November 17.
