Students enter the Kozhikode Government Medical College campus. Classes for the first-year MBBS students began in the State on Tuesday as per the directive of the National Medical Commission.
| Photo Credit: K. Ragesh
The Kozhikode Government Medical College is fast becoming the most preferred medical college for MBBS aspirants in the State, pipping the older Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College.
An analysis of the allotment of seats published by the Office of the Commissioner of Entrance Examinations based on the State merit has revealed that top rank holders preferred Kozhikode to Thiruvananthapuram in the past few years.
The allotment of MBBS seats in the State merit for 2022 published in October showed that out of the 15 top rank holders in the list, eight chose Kozhikode, while six picked Thiruvananthapuram and one, Kottayam. The first, second, eighth, 10th, 11th, 14th, 16th, and 22nd rank holders preferred Kozhikode while the 13th , 19th, 20th, 21st, 23rd and 24th went for Thiruvananthapuram. The 17th rank holder chose Kottayam.
At the same time, several top rank holders who figured in the State merit have decided to join the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as well as the Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, or medical colleges outside the State.
Same was the pattern followed in the allotment of seats to MBBS last year with top rank holders preferring Kozhikode Medical College. Likewise, the preference is also seen when it comes to allotment of seats in reservation category for Muslim and Ezhava/Thiyya communities.
Parents, students and coaching centres attribute this trend to better facilities and patient load at Kozhikode medical college than Thiruvananthapuram. “Another factor is that more girl students from Malabar, especially from Kozhikode and Malappuram districts, prefer Kozhikode,” said Dr. Manoj Kaloor, a physician whose daughter is an MBBS student.
Dr. Sreeraj Rajan, a senior physician and whose son is a fourth-year MBBS student, said students and parents also have a notion that older colleges are better than the newly established institutions. “But the majority are unaware that the faculty at all government medical colleges are appointed by the State,” he said.
He also contested the claim that peer groups mattered in traditional and old government medical colleges. “One can see that the top 1,000 rank holders are equally competent. This can be inferred by the NEET score and rank, and the State merit rank of candidates. The State’s first rank holder’s NEET score is 701 out of 720 while the NEET rank is 47. The 50th rank holder’s NEET score is 676 and the NEET rank is 1,007. The 100th rank holder’s NEET score is 670 while the NEET rank is 1,712,” Dr. Sreeraj said.
Both Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram medical colleges admit 250 students each based on 85% of State quota seats and 15% under all-India quota based on National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) conducted by the National Testing Agency. Incidentally, both the colleges do not figure in the list of the 50 medical institutions in the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the Ministry of Education.
