Obtaining a NEET UG certificate is a significant achievement for students aspiring to become doctors. However, tuition fees at medical universities, especially private and recognized ones, present a serious financial challenge, as the annual fee can amount to millions of rupees.
According to data published by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), after the completion of the NEET UG 2026 vacant seat round, 837 seats remain unoccupied for the MBBS program in the states of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Karnataka.
These unfilled seats include 824 seats in recognized medical universities of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, 1 seat in AIIMS Madurai, and 12 seats in the Chathinadu Hospital and Research Institute located in Kolar, Karnataka. The fact that such a large number of seats remains empty after the final counseling stage raises several serious questions.
There are over 350 vacant seats across the four mentioned institutions. Among them: Sri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute in Chennai has 188 vacant seats; Menaki Medical College and Research Institute in Kanchipuram has 117 vacant seats; Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute in Puducherry has 92 vacant seats; and Sri Balaji Medical College and Hospital in Chennai has 82 vacant seats.
This data clearly indicates that students are declining admission to these institutions after weighing their financial situation and other options. According to official information published by Sri Balaji Vidyapitham, the annual tuition fee at Sri Sathya Sai Medical College is 21 lakh rupees, and at Mahatma Gandhi Medical College, it is 24 lakh rupees. Furthermore, according to the Menaki Medical College brochure, the annual fee there is 23 lakh rupees. These amounts include only tuition fees, excluding hostel, mess, or other expenses. Thus, the total annual cost of studying at these recognized universities can range from 21 to 30 lakh rupees or even more. Although it cannot be asserted that the fee was the sole reason based only on the number of vacant seats, it has undoubtedly become a very important and decisive factor in choosing a college.
Given this large number of vacant seats, students are questioning the possibility of conducting a special counseling round to fill them. The MCC has already published the final results of the vacant seat round on its official website. Experts believe that a further special phase may be considered upon receiving government approval. Nevertheless, students who have successfully passed NEET UG should not assume that they will automatically be offered a seat if one is vacant; any new opportunity will depend on the official decision and rules of the government.
