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The government's announcement in the Union Budget to create 10,000 additional seats in medical colleges next year has been welcomed by education experts and stakeholders, saying the move will reduce the outflow of medical students to other countries.
Infrastructure expansion at the five new IITs to accommodate 6,500 more students, 10,000 new medical seats and an allocation of Rs 500 crore to set up a Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for education, are among the big announcements for the education sector in the 2025-26 budget.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Saturday that the government plans to add 75,000 seats in medical colleges in the next five years.
The India Edtech Consortium said increasing seats in medical colleges was urgently needed to meet the requirements of the healthcare sector as well as to reduce student outflow to other countries.
Prateek Maheshwari, Co-Founder, PhysicsWallah (PW) and Chairman, Indian Edtech Consortium (IEC), said, "75,000 additional medical seats over five years is a crucial step in reducing medical student outflow to other countries, given that over 23 lakh students appear for NEET, but only 1.1 lakh seats are available,"
The Economic Survey of 2024-25 tabled in Parliament on Friday flagged that the availability of opportunities for medical education appears to be geographically skewed, apparent from the fact that 51 per cent of undergraduate seats and 49 per cent of postgraduate seats are in the southern states. Further, the availability is skewed in favour of urban areas with the urban to rural doctor density ratio being 3.8:1.
The survey noted that the very low pass percentage of Foreign Medical Graduates in the qualifying exam to practice in India indicates sub-par quality of medical education abroad, including lack of clinical training.
The survey also recommended that as policy intervention to dissuade medical education abroad is crafted, keeping costs in India within reasonable limits is essential.
Preety Kumar, Managing Partner, Amrop India, an executive search and leadership advisory firm for organisations, including educational institutions, said the increased budget allocation for education, particularly with the focus on expanding capacity in IITs, medical colleges, and hospitals, definitely points to a strategic push to improve India's higher education ecosystem.
"..but, while the physical infrastructure is being expanded, there is an even more pressing need for high-quality faculty to meet the demand for new programs and institutions," Kumar said.
Monica Malhotra Kandhari, MD, Aasoka (MBD Group) said the addition of 10,000 medical college seats 'with a vision to reach 75,000 in the next five years' will significantly enhance healthcare education and workforce capacity.
Indranil Manna Vice Chancellor, BIT Mesra, Ranchi, welcomed the announcements in the budget for the education sector but said an additional focus on private educational institutions in the current Budget would have given a booster dose to the sector since a higher number of students enrol in private institutes, than government ones.
"These measures, coupled with the emphasis on digital education and research fellowships, will certainly propel India toward becoming a global knowledge and innovation hub," Manna said.
Dr Venkat Rangan, Vice-Chancellor, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, said the addition of 75,000 undergraduate medical seats over the next five years will significantly strengthen healthcare education and accessibility.
Supriya Pattanayak, Vice Chancellor, Centurion University, Odisha, welcomed the plan to increase the number of seats at medical colleges and hospitals, as it will play an instrumental role in enhancing healthcare across the country.
There are over 1.10 lakh MBBS seats available in medical colleges across the country. A record over 25 lakh candidates had appeared for the medical entrance exam--NEET UG in 2024.
Every year, Foreign Medical Graduate Exam sees a varying number of candidates attempting the exam. For the FMGE 2024 December session, a total of 13,149 candidates cleared the examination while the FMGE total candidates who appeared for the examination were 44,392.