Saturday, June 16, 2018

ToI's Analysis of Medical College Admissions in 2017


I am not thrilled to see the word "merit" being used so casually, but Rema Nagarajan's ToI news story captures the essence in its title: Money, not quota, dilutes merit in medical admissions:

It is not caste-based reservation but money that compromises merit in medical admissions.

This is obvious from the difference of about 140 marks, or close to 20 percentage points, between the average NEET scores of admissions to over 39,000 government-controlled seats and those to the over 17,000 management and NRI quota seats in private colleges where fees determine admission.

TOI analysed details of nearly 57,000 students admitted to 409 colleges last year. The average NEET score of students in government-controlled seats was 448 out of 720, while the quotas under private control averaged just 306.

Incidentally, the average score of students admitted under the SC quota in government colleges was 398 and the overall average for SC students in all colleges was 367, both much higher than the overall average for privately controlled seats.

2 Comments:

  1. gautam barua said...

    TOI's analysis is flawed. Govt. Colleges charge lower fees, and most Govt. COlleges are ranked higher than Pvt. Colleges in India (the investment levels decide quality in both Medicine and Engineering - see any ranking data to verify that this is indeed so). Therefore, is it surprising that higher ranked students prefer Govt. Colleges? Yes, among the lower ranked students, the richer students will be able to afford the fees of most Pvt. Colleges. But that is not what the conclusions are of the TOI article.

  2. Unknown said...

    A question to both of you. What is the minimum score required in this NEET exam to make a good future doctor ?
    Karuns