CHENNAI: The Medical Council of India’s Board of Governors sanctioned conversion of 384 postgraduate diploma medical seats into degree seats which will be filled in the 2019-2020 academic year. The Board of Governors has also given approval for a total of 124 additional PG degree seats.
With this, the number of PG degree seats in Tamil Nadu State has increased from 1,250 in 2018-2019 to 1,758 in 2019-2020, the highest number of PG medical degree seats in the government medical colleges in the country. The State had surrendered the diploma seats to the MCI and was waiting for the conversion order.
Speaking to Express, Dr A Edwin Joe, Director of Medical Education, said, “We received the conversion sanction order on Thursday. The 384 PG diploma seats in six government medical colleges, Madras Medical College, Stanley Medical College, Kilpauk Medical College, Madurai Medical College, Thanjavur Medical College and Coimbatore Medical College have been converted into PG degree seats. Apart from this, the Board of Governors also sanctioned a total additional 124 PG degree seats for 2019-2020,” he added.
According to officials, the State had 1,250 PG degree seats in 2018-2019. It had applied for 124 additional seats and the seats were sanctioned in two phases with 56 in the first phase. With these, the seats were increased to 1,362. Now with conversion of 384 PG diploma seats to PG degree, the total number has increased to 1,758.
After the sanction, the number of MD and MS seats in Madras Medical College has increased to 433, in Stanley Medical College to 204, in Kilpauk Medical College to 121, in Madurai Medical College to 184, in Thanjavur Medical College to 102 and in Coimbatore Medical College to 33.
“Only these six medical colleges had diploma seats. Now, the State has only three diploma seats in diabetology. There is no MD for diploma in diabetology and so the State has retained those three seats as diploma,” an official said.
Dr Edwin Joe said that now the Madras Medical College, Chennai has the highest number of PG degree seats, double the number of its UG seats. The college has 250 MBBS seats, but now after the increase its PG seats increased to 433. He further said that the State has also applied for 350 MBBS seats for 2019-2020 academic year and it is expecting the sanction. There are no 2,900 MBBS seats in the State.