AYUSH courses: 571 seats vacant in private colleges in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: For the first time since NEET was made mandatory for admission to AYUSH courses in 2019, the directorate of Indian medicine and homoeopathy in Tamil Nadu has managed to fill all state quota seats in government colleges. However, in self-financing colleges, 571 seats in Siddha, Ayurveda and Homeopathy remained vacant, when the state closed admissions for 2021 on Tuesday.
In the last two years, seats in government medical colleges, particularly in Unani, have gone vacant because there weren’t adequate students who cleared the entrance test. “This year we saw a big difference in the number of students who cleared NEET. The number of the eligible candidates among the applicants was much bigger,” said Indian medicine and Homeopathy selection committee secretary Dr Malarvizhi B. “It was particularly difficult to fill government seats in Unani because students have to clear both Arabic and NEET before admissions. This time we had more than the required number of students in that stream,” she said. The pool included students from rural areas.

While students who apply for Siddha and Ayurveda courses are required to clear Tamil and Sanskrit within one year of admissions, students from Unani are admitted only if they clear Arabic. This year, all 51 state quota seats for bachelors in Unani were taken, she said. In addition, 229 seats – 136 in Siddha, 42 in homoeopathy and 51 in Ayurveda – were filled by the committee after surrendering 50 government college seats in these streams to the central committee for admission through all India quota seats.
This year, the committee was also in charge of admission to all seats – all India quota, state quota and management quota – to 1660 seats in 36 self-financing colleges offering Siddha, Ayurveda and Unani courses. No self-financing colleges are offering Unani. Admissions to courses in Yoga and Naturopathy are done based on Class 12 marks. Of the 1600 seats, 571 seats are vacant. This includes 72 out of 253 seats under all India quota, 202 out of 935 seats in government quota and 297 out of 544 seats in management quota.
Experts say it will take a while for all seats to be filled in self-financing colleges, where the fee is higher. “More students now want to join courses in AYUSH courses because these courses are being recognized better by central and state governments in the post-covid era,” said R Sateesh, who is coaching students for NEET.
Experts have recommended an analysis of students who have joined these courses to understand if NEET still remains a burden.