Differing views in Directorate of Medical education over online admission

Updated on: Friday, November 09, 2012

Going online with admissions has put off many in the directorate of medical education (DME), who prefer the off-line mode. Following the ruckus and accusations of mishandling the online counselling process this year, the DME now wants more powers over the private medical colleges and better software to keep taps on the admission seekers.

"We are powerless when it comes to private medical colleges and we have no control over them. All we can do is write letters," said DME joint director Dr N M Shrivastava. Many students had protested over the allotment of medical seats in private medical colleges after the DME failed to clarify the exact number of vacant seats just before online counselling ended in September.

Monitoring hundreds of application from across the country, had the DME perplexed. "It is extremely difficult to control online admissions. It was simpler in the manual format," he added. "The software was not up to the mark too and we had to revert to manual checks," he added.

Students for their part complain of the process not being transparent. "It is called online counselling, but majority of the process is still stereotypically offline," said Manoj Sharma, a student.

DME official admit that online mode was hard to monitor and check for discrepancies. "Like the manual admission process, the DME from the next year would make it mandatory for the student to complete admission process and join once a seat is blocked," said Dr Shrivastava, admitting they like others were in the dark till the last moment, when it came to admissions to private medical colleges.

Differing views in Directorate of Medical education over online admission

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