This year, 27,021 out of 1,50,477 students who appeared for the medical exam, are eligible for admissions to 58 government medical colleges registering a dip from last year when 23.8 per cent students were eligible. Selected medical students from Mumbai will have to fill up their preference forms stating their course specialisation and colleges by the first week of July at Grant Medical College.

There are total of 17,635 seats in 277 medical colleges in the state, with 3,805 seats in 58 government colleges, 205 seats in 2 central government /aided colleges, 11,290 seats in 195 private college, 2,335 seats in 23 colleges of deemed universities.  

Dr WB Tayde, director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), said that the seats have not been increased this year in order `to ensure that quality of education is not degraded.' "The government gives permission to open medical colleges based on proposition of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and also based on the location of the proposed colleges. It concerns us that there are hardly any proposals to begin colleges in rural areas which require medical facilities the most." Tayde pointed out that the doctor to patient ratio in the country was still 1:1,500 as opposed to the ideal ratio of 1:500 and that there were hardly any students who wanted to practice in rural areas.    

Tayde also said that from 2011, the number of attempts will be reduced to three and the age limit will be reduced from 35 years to 25 years. Earlier there was no bar on the number of attempts.