PCI’s delay in extending approval to pharmacy colleges in Telangana may impact admissions 

While the web options for admissions to MPharm and PharmD (PB) via the TG PGECET is scheduled for August 12 and 13, the State authorities are yet to receive seat intake for these programmes.

Hyderabad: The Pharmacy Council of India (PCI)’s delay in extending approval to the pharmacy colleges in the State is likely to impact admission process to BPharmacy, PharmD, MPharm and Pharm D (PB) courses.

Every year, 50 per cent seats each in the BPharmacy and PharmD courses are allotted for candidates who qualify the TG EAPCET (earlier TS EAMCET) with MPC and BiPC streams in the intermediate. Accordingly, seats meant for the MPC students are filled during the engineering counselling.

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However, this time, seats in the BPharmacy and PharmD courses have not been up for grabs via two phases of TG EAPCET web-based admission counselling.

Similarly, while the web options for admissions to MPharm and PharmD (PB) via the TG PGECET is scheduled for August 12 and 13, the State authorities are yet to receive seat intake for these programmes.

Officials said the PCI is yet to issue approval for the pharmacy colleges in the State and hence the counselling could not be conducted for the MPC stream students during the engineering counselling. “As for PG pharmacy courses, we have not received seat intake yet. We will go ahead with admissions for PG engineering and architecture programmes and take up PG pharmacy admissions as when approval comes from the PCI,” officials said

The PCI had announced a yearly basis approval process for the pharmacy colleges with applications for the academic year 2024-25 opened from December 14 to 31, 2023. However, it further extended the deadline following requests from the stakeholders.

Some colleges approached the Delhi Court against PCI’s yearly basis approval, the pharmacy college managements said. The PCI, which moved the Supreme Court seeking extension for the approval process by six months, obtained permission to complete the process by October 10, the managements said.

For this academic year, a total of 122 pharmacy colleges have sought approval from the PCI. Last year, there were 119 pharmacy including three university colleges and 116 private colleges offering BPharmacy and PharmD courses with 4,505 seat intake.