Valley
Bowing to pressure, TU endorses seat allocation
The Tribhuvan University (TU) endorsed the allocation of seats to its affiliated medical colleges on Sunday, putting to the rest fears surrounding the timely commencement of classes.The Tribhuvan University (TU) endorsed the allocation of seats to its affiliated medical colleges on Sunday, putting to the rest fears surrounding the timely commencement of classes.
Over two months earlier, the Institute of Medicine (IoM) had sought an endorsement of the TU Executive Council for the allocation of seats to its seven affiliated private medical colleges for this academic year.
Dr Jagdish Agrawal, Dean of IoM, confirmed the endorsement. “We will start counseling for the selected students by January 10. We will expedite the process so that the classes could begin soon,” he said.
For this year, the IoM has allocated 100 seats each to Universal College of Medical Sciences, Bhairahawa and Nepal Army Academy of Health Sciences, Kathmandu. Similarly, 90 seats each have been allocated to National Medical College, Birjung; KIST Medical College, Lalitpur; Chitwan Medical College, Chitwan and Gandaki Medical College, Pokhara. Also, 80 seats have been allocated to Janakpur-based Janaki Medical College.
IoM officials, who have been closely following the development, said that under pressure from private medical colleges to increase the number of seats to at least 100 the TU had been lingering the endorsement. The council has to endorse the total seats before the IoM can begin counseling of the students who have passed the entrance examination.
The IoM had on Friday issued a public notice asking students to register for open-house counseling, building pressure on the TU Executive Council for an approval of college seats. A counseling session lets the students choose a medical college based on merit. The admission process for this year has been delayed by over two months after multiple investigations confirmed that question papers of the entrance test held on October 14 had been leaked. Over 15 examinees were arrested from the examination hall for using medical devices to cheat in the test. The IoM conducted the test again on December 2.
Only students who pass the entrance test are eligible to apply for private medical colleges affiliated to the IoM.