Daily Times

LAHORE: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) have revised the admission policy for public and private medical and dental colleges. The new policy would aim to induct students purely on merit. These regulations may be called the MBBS and BDS (Admissions, House job and Internship) Regulations, 2016.

According to an official notification, there shall be an admission board comprising PMDC council president or a member of the council nominated by him as chairperson, one member of the council from each province, one member of the council from FATA and one member of the council from Islamabad Capital Territory.

The board shall oversee the process of admission in MBBS and BDS in all provinces and regions. The board has powers to inspect any examination, ensure implementation of these regulations and any other directions of the council. A uniform pattern and syllabus for admission test shall be approved by the council and the syllabus of the admission test shall be commensurate with HSSC or FSc level curriculum.

Every provincial, regional department dealing with admissions shall, each year by notification under intimation to the council, authorise one recognised public sector medical university as exam conducting university to conduct a single test for admission in MBBS and BDS courses in that province.

The test result and order of merit shall be applicable to public and private sector medical and dental institutions of the same province. No candidate shall be admitted to any medical institution unless he/she passes admission test. No public and private medical or dental institution or its admitting/affiliating university shall hold its own admission test, aptitude test or interview. For admissions in private medical and dental institutions, centralised provincial or regional admission test of any province or region shall be applicable all over Pakistan.

No private medical and dental institution or its affiliating university shall advertise, process admissions in any manner or admit students before October 31 or before the display of final merit list of public-sector medical and dental institutions of respective province and region.

All private medical and dental institutions shall maintain a separate online account in a scheduled bank and all charges to be received from students shall be deposited by students or their parents or guardians in the online account and no cash shall be demanded from students for any fee and charges. This account number must be mentioned in prospectus and website with fee and charges’ structure.

The admission to MBBS and BDS course in a medical and dental institution shall be made strictly on the basis of merit and in accordance with these regulations and no student shall be charged for any sort of donation, bribe, kick back or monetary gain in any form.

Any admission made in violation of merit or on the basis of monetary gain in any form and reported to or noticed by the council shall be considered a violation of these regulations entailing penal action under the ordinance.

Rs 642, 000 shall be annual tuition fee per student for private medical college excluding university examination fee, taxes, hostels fee and transport fee and $18,000 for foreign quota seats.