NEET 2026: 175 MBBS seats remain vacant in Telangana private medical colleges, high fees cited
Hyderabad: After multiple rounds of NEET-UG 2026 counselling, private medical colleges in Telangana still have at least 175 MBBS seats vacant, while all seats in government medical colleges are filled. The vacant seats fall under Category B (management) and Category C (NRI) quotas.
Telangana has more than 10,000 MBBS seats, including over 6,000 seats in 29 private medical colleges. While the annual fee for Category B seats ranges from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 11 lakh, students admitted under the NRI quota have to pay Rs 24 lakh to Rs 25 lakh annually.
TOI sources alleged that some private medical colleges collect Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh from Category A students against the prescribed fee of around Rs 60,000. They also alleged that colleges demand amounts exceeding the approved fees from Category B and C students, sometimes running into crores of rupees, besides additional hostel and other charges.
According to J Venkateshwarlu, Joint Registrar of Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS), this was the first time such a large number of MBBS seats had remained vacant in the state. He attributed the higher demand for government colleges to their comparatively lower fees.
"All govt college seats have been filled, as demand for them is always high and the fees are much lower," said J Venkateshwarlu.
Commenting on this, Dr. N. Karthik State President, Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA) told Medical Dialogues, "The 175 vacant MBBS seats in Telangana, despite thousands of aspiring medical students, highlight a growing affordability crisis in medical education. This is not a lack of interest in pursuing medicine, but a reflection of the financial barriers created by the rising cost of medical seats. Medical education should be accessible to deserving students based on merit and capability, not merely their financial background. We urge the government and TAFRC to review the existing fee structure and explore measures to make medical education more affordable. It is unfortunate when seats remain vacant while deserving students are forced to abandon their dream of becoming doctors due to financial constraints.”
Similarly, Dr G Srinivas, a member of the Telangana Medical Council (TGMC) told TOI, "Engineering graduates get packages worth several lakhs, while a duty medical officer earns Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 a month. Even after MD or DM, there is saturation."
The growing dependence on private institutions for expanding medical education has also come under discussion. According to the National Medical Commission's (NMC) recently released seat matrix, Telangana received approval for 1,010 additional MBBS seats for the 2026-27 academic year. Private medical colleges accounted for 900 of these seats, while government colleges added only 110.
Earlier, in January 2026, Medical Dialogues had reported that doctors in Telangana had sought the state government's intervention over efforts by private medical college management associations to introduce a uniform fee structure for undergraduate and postgraduate medical admissions, which they feared could undermine the existing Convener Quota system.
Dr Dwarkanath Reddy, former president of the Telangana chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), also pointed to the limited job opportunities available to MBBS graduates without postgraduate qualifications.
"Finding a job after MBBS is not easy, especially without postgraduation. There are no campus placements like in other fields. Even families with a medical background are now thinking twice before opting for NRI quota seats," he added.
Meanwhile, associations of private medical colleges have urged the NMC and KNRUHS to extend the counselling deadline. KNRUHS is likely to reopen counselling to fill the remaining vacancies.
