NEET Is Not About Meritocracy, 48% Seats Reserved For 2% Of The Rich: Careers360 Research

Amidst the row over the medical entrance exam NEET and the alleged irregularities in the results suggesting a paper leak, Maheshwari Peri, founder and chairman of Careers360, recently released a video analysing how 48% of the seats are reserved for the 2% of the rich.

In the video, Peri breaks down the number of medical colleges, the number of seats in each college, the fee structure, and how, despite ranking low, several aspirants are able to secure a seat in the private and deemed universities, paying crores, while those with higher ranks fail to secure a seat.

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In India, as per the data by the National Medical Commission (NMC), there are a total of 704 medical colleges with about 1,09,170 medical seats in total. Out of the 704 colleges, 382 are government colleges (55,225 seats), 7 are central universities (1,180 seats), 264 are private medical colleges (42,515 seats), and 51 are private deemed universities (10,250 seats).

The central universities have a total cost of education (including hostels, mess facilities, etc.) of around Rs 3.6 lakhs per annum, while the government medical colleges cost nearly Rs 6.2 lakhs per annum. In comparison, the private medical colleges have a total cost of around Rs 78.82 lakhs per annum, while the deemed universities in India cost around Rs 1.22 crores per annum, according to the video.

With over 1.9 lakh total seats, the number of qualified students in 2024 was 13,16,268. The pass percentage of the NEET exams has been dramatically low, with it being 16.36% in 2022. In such a case, a student who scored 117 out of the total 720 marks was deemed to be qualified. In 2023, the pass percentage rose to 19.03%, which enabled a student with 137 marks to also qualify. Over the last six years, the pass percentage has been hovering around 20%.

“But why do they do that? They only have 1.9 lakh seats, why do they need 13 lakh students to qualify? Why can’t they limit themselves to 5 lakh students being qualified? Of the 5 lakh students, 1 lakh will claim the seats,” asks Peri.

The answer lies in the expensive fees, because of which many students fall apart. The seats in private and deemed universities are what Peri calls a “reservation for the rich.” With around 53,000 seats in private and deemed universities combined, and with a fee of Rs 80 lakhs and above, no more than 2% of Indians can actually afford the seat.

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Careers360’s video elaborates on how several students with low marks like 137 (out of a possible 720) secured a seat in Chennai’s ACS Medical College and Sree Balaji Medical College, all deemed universities (based on 2023 data by NMC). The video also points out how the fee for NRI students ranges around Rs 3–4 crore.

“What does it lead to? It leads to a massive question mark on the merits of the students. Because of this inflated pricing that you have, the merit falls,” says Peri. An NRI student with a NEET score of 140 secured a seat in Maharashtra’s Bharati Vidyapeeth, while another with a score of 121 got a seat in the deemed university in the state. This phenomenon can be seen occurring only in private and deemed universities where ranks or marks take a backseat, with the only filter being “can you afford to pay the fee?”

With this comes another problem when students cannot afford the high fees of private education and do not have the merit to get a public education. The trap of pursuing an MBBS abroad. Additionally, the video highlights the “suboptimal” education of many of the medical colleges abroad, especially in CIS countries, where a lot of them are not even affiliated with hospitals and focus more on just classroom learning.

And when these students return to India, they may fail to compete with students here with the kind of detailed and experienced education they receive in India. In 2023, out of the 62,077 students who appeared for the FMGE exam, a licensing exam for foreign medical candidates, only 10,255 passed, suggesting a pass percentage of just 16.52%.

The Economically Weaker Section (EWS) is a section of the population in India with an annual family income of less than Rs 8 lakh. The video highlights that around 200 EWS students paid more than Rs 1 crore to secure a seat in deemed universities. Out of the 10,000 seats, nearly 2% are claimed by EWS students.

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In 2024, out of the 1.09 lakh seats available, 52,765 seats are in private and deemed universities, which are unaffordable for the majority of Indian students.

“NEET is not meritocracy. NEET is about creating an order and a larger base of people so that anyone can pick up students at the fee that they want to charge,” says Peri.

So the bigger question that Peri asks is, “What kind of doctors would we create when a student is paying Rs 1-2 crore to be a doctor in the country?”

He further urges that “the collective conscience of the country must demand that we increase supply at affordable pricing” so that students can stay back in India instead of going abroad for education and medical aspirants have more choice in the college they choose – both public and private institutions. Peri also suggests that the private and deemed universities must comply with the basic demand that the fee be regulated for a certain period of time to ensure that India has more doctors with conscience.