Maharashtra panel recommends 5-year pause on new pharmacy colleges after B Pharm seats go vacant

NEW DELHI: A panel set up by Maharashtra’s directorate of technical education has recommended a pause on approval of new pharmacy colleges in the state for the next five years. Maharashtra’s directorate of technical education (DTE) had appointed the committee in March after 14,523 seats out of 42,793 B Pharmacy and Pharma D seats – over 33% – remained vacant after the third round of admission counselling in 2023.

The official notice on the establishment of the committee noted that there has been an “increase in number of vacancies” in pharmacy seats and said the committee shall decide “a policy of the courses of the faculty of pharmacy for the academic year 2025-26 and beyond.” The notice added that the expert committee shall “prepare a comprehensive plan for the same up to the academic year 2030-31”.

A member of the committee told Careers360: “The committee has drafted recommendations that no new pharma college shall be set up for the next five years.” The committee is headed by VK Maurya, a retired emeritus professor, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad. The 12-member committee has prepared a plan for the next five years for pharmaceutical institutes of Maharashtra. The report will be submitted to the department by July 30.

The panel member explained that whenever the PCI is asked to permit the establishment of a new pharmacy college or the introduction of a new pharma course, the institutes have to submit no objection certificates (NOC) from the state government. If the government doesn't provide NOC, PCI will not approve. The government appointed the committee to examine existing figures and decide how many new colleges could be approved.

B Pharmacy admission, new colleges

In Maharashtra, admission to B Pharma and Pharm D courses are through the state-level common entrance test, MH CET. Following the test, the State CET Cell conducts admission counselling – the “centralised admission process”, or CAP counselling – which is essentially assigning specific seats to candidates based on their test scores.

In 2023, even after three rounds of CAP counselling, over a third of the B Pharmacy and Diploma in Pharmacy seats were vacant for the 2023-24 academic year. In 2023-24, Shrimati Latatai Baburao Patil Institute Of Pharmacy, Khandgaon, Bendri, affiliated to the state-run Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University (SRTMU), Nanded, had 85% seats vacant after the third round of CAP counselling; Ratnadeep College of Pharmacy, Ratnapur, Ahmednagar, had 89% seats vacant; Saraswati Institute of Pharmacy, Nanded, had 64%; and DK Patil Institute of Pharmacy, affiliated to SRMTU, had 70%; and New Montfort Institute of Pharmacy, Ashti, Ahmadpur had 84%. The New College of Pharmacy, Kolhapur, was unable to fill any seat at all in the three rounds of CAP counselling. According to data on the Maharashtra CET Cell’s website, 100% of its seats were vacant after CAP III.

Soon after, the directorate of technical education asked the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), the apex regulatory body for pharmaceutical education in India, to pause approvals to new pharma institutes in the state.

Already in July, 2019, the Pharmacy Council of India had imposed a nationwide moratorium on the opening of new degree or diploma colleges for five years, like the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) did for engineering. However, in 2022, the Supreme Court lifted the moratorium.

The number of vacant seats in Maharashtra shot up. In 2022-23, the number of seats in B Pharma and D Pharma courses in Maharashtra was 36,228; of these, 4,503 were vacant.

However, in 2023-24 over 50 new pharmacy colleges received approval to start admissions. The total number of seats grew by over 11,000.

MHT CET Counselling: Clash with engineering

The 57 new colleges received late approvals on starting admissions, almost at the end of the admission process, said the panel member. He stated that while there is an increased interest in pharmaceutical courses, there is a constant delay in the pharmacy admission process and this is a major reason for vacant seats.

“In covid, many people in the state got to know the role of pharmacy and what opportunities there are. Slowly many students became aware of careers in pharmaceuticals. Due to awareness and unemployment in engineering courses, many students shifted to pharmacy. But the challenge is, every year the state of Maharashtra conducts the admission process for engineering first and later of pharmacy courses. Due to delay in the admission process for pharmaceutical courses many students eventually take admission in engineering and are not ready to take admission in pharmacy,” he explained.

Although there were over 60,000 applicants against 42,793 seats, teachers believe that actual demand is lower than supply.

“More colleges are there in respect to the demand, [there is the] issue of supply and demand ratio where there has been an increase in the colleges,” added a professor from the faculty of pharmacy at Yashoda Technical Campus, Satara, Maharashtra. Three new pharmacy institutes have recently received approval after the Bombay High Court asked both PCI and DTE to provide NOCs for new campuses.

The current concern is that while already-established pharmacy institutes are serving the demand, the sudden introduction of new pharma colleges is not able to fulfil the requirements of the industry,the professor added, asking not to be named.