Girls win two-thirds of medical college seats

Female candidates win majority of seats in the 18 public medical and dental colleges in the province.

LAHORE: Female candidates have won two-thirds of the open seats in the 18 public medical and dental colleges in the province for the next academic session, according to the merit list issued by the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Monday.

Girls got 1,916 of the total 2,842 MBBS merit seats available, a percentage of 67.40. That is slightly less than last year, when girls won some 71 per cent of the seats, said a UHS spokesman.

The bottom score to win an MBBS (medical) seat was 81.7727 per cent and to win a BDS (dentistry) seat was 81.6273 per cent. The merit list ranks students according to a composite of their FSc and entry test scores, with 30 per cent weight given to the latter and 70 per cent to the former.

South Punjab did best overall as a region, with 976 of its 8,220 candidates winning merit seats, a percentage of 11.87 per cent. 1728 of 1,7931 candidates from Central Punjab (success rate of 9.64 per cent) and 206 of 2,419 candidates from North Punjab (8.51 per cent) won MBBS seats.

A total of 30,543 candidates appeared in the entry test for 2,842 MBBS and 175 BDS open merit seats in public medical and dental colleges of the Punjab. There are another 363 MBBS reserved seats and 41 BDS reserved seats.

UHS Vice Chancellor Prof Malik Hussain Mubbashar said that the merit list of all medical colleges would be issued on Tuesday (today). He was proud that the merit scores had not fallen despite the addition of 942 MBBS seats in the Punjab from last year.

The vice chancellor said that four newly established medical colleges in Sahiwal, Gujranwala, Sialkot and DG Khan got an “overwhelming response” from students as they received many applications.

He said that 60 candidates applied for 20 seats reserved for disabled students. Thirty-one were found to be genuinely disabled. The minimum score for admission on a reserved for disabled candidates was 67.2818 per cent, Prof Mubbashar said.

He said that 364 candidates claimed extra marks for memorising the Holy Quran. A total of 142 candidates were found to be genuine Huffaz-e-Quran. They were awarded an extra 20 marks each, which added 1.4 percent to their final merit scores.

Prof Mubbashar said that 660 candidates applied for 61 seats reserved for six under-developed districts of the Punjab. A total of 234 candidates applied for 10 seats reserved for Muzzafargarh district, the minimum merit score being 83.7545 per cent; 124 candidates applied for 10 seats in Layyah, the minimum merit score being 83.4455 per cent; 39 applied for 9 Lodhran seats, the minimum merit being 80.1364 per cent; 47 candidates applied for 10 Bhakkar seats, the minimum score being 80.5000 per cent ; 56 applied for 9 Rajanpur seats, the merit being 82.7364 per cent for city and 63.0182 per cent for tribal area; and 160 candidates applied for 13 DG Khan seats, with the minimum merit score being 84.4818 per cent for city area and 80.8273 per cent for tribal area seats.

The minimum merit score can be higher for the reserved seats for underdeveloped districts than in the open merit list because candidates from these districts can apply for both lists. In some cases, winning a reserved seat can get them into a ‘better’ medical college than the same score on the open merit list.

The UHS vice chancellor said that the candidates who applied for admission to seats reserved for underdeveloped districts were required to submit certificates issued by the heads of the institutions from which they completed their primary, secondary and higher secondary education and verified by the EDO (Education) and DCO of their respective district, with their application form. He said all these candidates had now been verified.

MERIT FOR MEDICAL AND DENTAL COLLEGES SESSION 2010-11

Sr. No.    Name of college                                               First merit         Last merit

1.   King Edward Medical University, Lahore                 93.9545                   87.2091

2.   Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore                         91.5364                   85.4727

3.   Fatima Jinnah Medical College, Lahore                        88.9182                  83.9182

4.   Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore         85.4727                 84.0909

5.   Nishtar Medical College, Multan                                       92.9455                 83.6273

6.   Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad                                 90.9727                83.1091

7.   Rawalpindi Medical College                                                  92.0727                83.0182

8.   Quaid-e-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur                 89.6727               82.5909

9.   Sargodha Medical College                                                      85.7636                82.4909

10. Nawaz Sharif Medical College, Gujrat                         84.9455                 82.3182

11.        Shaikh Zayed Medical College, RYK                             87.5000               82.1636

12.        d’Montmorency College of Dentistry, Lahore         88.7455                81.7636

13.        Nishtar Institute of Dentistry, Multan                       83.0091                  81.6727

14.        Dental Section, Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad    82.6545            81.6273

15.        Sahiwal Medical College                                                      84.7182                   81.9545

16.        Gujranwala Medical College                                               83.6455                  82.0545

17.        DG Khan Medical College                                                     82.5727                  81.7727

18.        Sialkot Medical College                                                         83.0727                  81.8364

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2010.