punjab

Updated: May 23, 2017 15:46 IST

South Indians seem to be taking the maximum benefit of the medical education provided in one of the best tertiary care institutes in North India.

According to the annual report of the PGIMER, every 7th student pursuing specialty course (MD/ MS) at PGIMER is from Andhra Pradesh. Further, South Indians constitute 38% of the total students in this category.

As far as the enrolment of Punjabi students is concerned, in speciality and super-speciality courses, they are very minimal in comparison.

A total 782 students from 29 states, union territories and three foreign countries are pursuing Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Master of Surgery (MS) course from the PGIMER.

As many as 109 students from AP are pursuing MD/MS.

Not only AP, students from South India occupy a large chunk of seats. There are 68 students from Tamil Nadu, which makes it the second highest. From Telangana and Karnataka there were 58 and 56 students respectively.

There were 8 students from Puducherry as well.

This makes it 299 students from South India, which is 38.2% per cent of the total students.

Only 35 students from Punjab could make it to the MD/MS and from Haryana there are 38 students. Also, 64 students from Himachal Pradesh made the cut.

SUPER SPECIALITY COURSES

There are total of 301 candidates in DM (Doctorate of Medicine) and MCh (Master of Chirurgical). Here, with 31, the maximum students are from Karnataka, and from Andhra Pradesh is 11.

MOST RESEARCH SCHOLARS ARE FROM PUNJAB

When it comes to research, the students from the Northern states are leading. There are 190 PhD candidates enrolled in PGIMER in 2016. Out of these, maximum number of students are from Punjab (46), followed by Himachal Pradesh (37) and Haryana (30).

Talking about difficulties, Vybah Venkatesh, final year MD student, said, “Language and food poses challenges during our stay in the institute. During the first month, we hardly understand anything, but with time and language orientation classes, we learn. As far as food is concerned, we love spicy food and biryani, which is hardly available in PGIMER. So, we are always on a hunt to find good food.”

WHY STUDENTS FROM AP MAKE IT TO PGIMER?

“Students in Andhra Pradesh have limited options. We can either apply within our state or in central institutes like PGIMER or AIIMS. So, these two institutes remain our main targets, said Vybhav Venkatesh, final year MD student. Arvind Goyal, citybased educator, said, “Andhra Pradesh does not have the option of 50% all-India quota. While filling NEET form, a student from AP gets an option to choose either state quota or all-India quota. In case he chooses state quota, then he cannot apply in government medical colleges of other states and is left with only two options government medical colleges in AP or five central institutes including PGIMER, AIIMS.”

Dr Subhash Varma, dean, PGIMER, said, “PGIMER has a cosmopolitan culture where students across the country apply for admissions. Its few courses like internal medicine are very popular. There is nothing like that North Indians are less capable of getting admissions in speciality or super speciality courses. I am a North Indian. It is a trend has been set and medical colleges in states such as AP and TN have high level of reservation.”