Panaji: After the NEET (UG) fiasco and a prolonged delay, Goa’s first round of admissions to first-year undergraduate medicine and dental seats will finally be held on Tuesday.With an increase in MBBS seats this year, the directorate of technical education (DTE) will conduct admissions for 250 MBBS seats. Of these, 212 state quota seats will be filled on Aug 25, while the remaining seats will be filled under the all-India quota.For dental admissions, 42 of the total 50 BDS seats will be filled under the state quota, with the rest under the all-India quota.Officials said that despite the increase in MBBS seats, all seats are expected to be filled in the first round, as in previous years. The same trend is expected for BDS seats, which are also typically filled in the first round.From Aug 26 to 28, admissions will be held for other NEET-based programmes, including nursing and allied health courses. On Aug 28, admissions to pharmacy seats will be conducted, with students selected based on their best score in NEET or JEE, officials said.Allied health programmes offered at Goa Medical College include physiotherapy, occupational therapy, optometry, medical imaging technology, and anaesthesia technology, with an intake of 22 seats each.With several new nursing colleges added in the state in addition to the govt-run college at Bambolim, the total intake for graduate nursing programmes in Goa has risen to 340 seats. Goa also has a small number of seats for ayurveda and homeopathy programmes.Meanwhile, officials said two rounds of admissions have already been completed for graduate engineering programmes in Goa, with around 300 of roughly 1,700 seats still vacant. A third round is expected around the second week of Sept.Shiroda-based Shree Rayeshwar Institute of Engineering & Information Technology (RIEIT) has asked state govt not to admit first-year students to any of its four engineering programmes for the 2026–27 academic year. As a result, admissions are now open for first-year seats in only four engineering colleges.Officials said seats at Goa Engineering College, Farmagudi, are full except for 15 in one programme.“Admissions in the IT and computer streams are completely taken in all three private colleges as well, but seats are largely vacant in the mechanical and civil engineering streams. Usually, the number of vacant seats was higher, at around 500 each year. This year, vacancies have dropped to 300 because RIEIT has stopped admissions, and most of its 300-seat intake would otherwise have gone vacant,” said an official.
