The Medical and Dental Council in an urgent response to concerns of dental colleges over low rates of admissions have granted a special ten-day window from 1st February to 10th February 2022 for dental colleges.
This window is only for dental colleges to complete their admissions while also allowing them to consider students who may have applied to other colleges and are now interested in obtaining admission to a different dental college.
Over the past week, representatives from medical & dental colleges especially from Punjab met with the President and the Vice President of the Pakistan Medical Commission to discuss the extremely low response by students for admission to dental colleges.
This was also followed by written requests to look into the matter.
Suggestions made by the colleges included lowering the MDCAT pass standards as well as granting an additional one month for admissions.
The facts provided by the dental colleges highlighted that very few students applied to dental colleges to start with and even fewer accepted offers for admission.
The majority of the colleges agreed with the Commission’s finding that the increased fee for dental colleges coupled with a limited career option after graduation led to the students making an informed choice and these factors were seen by them as a deterrent to selecting dental education as a choice.
The Commission pointed out that the market forces are determining the demand for not only the choice of education but also the colleges that students seek to aspire to.
