Second round of counseling for MBBS seats to start from Sept 26
Shillong, Sep 3: Following approval from the National Medical Commission (NMC), the Shillong Medical College (SMC) is going to start its first academic session by the last week of September.
“We have received the letter of permission sanctioned and notified by the NMC, listing the SMC as one of the colleges that have been approved for functioning from this year’s session of 2025-26 with an intake capacity 50 students,” Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said on Wednesday.
As per the all-India schedule of NEET qualified students, SMC is prepared to start the session by September last week, she said.
After the NMC approval, Meghalaya now has a total of 144 MBBS seats, including 50 at SMC and 94 allotted to various institutions within and outside the state, such as NEIGRIHMS and RIIMS.
Lyngdoh also assured that the medical seats allotted by government of India would not be suddenly withdrawn, although some seats might be part of the state’s quota.
Meanwhile, the second round of counseling for MBBS seats, which will include all Centrally-allotted seats for Meghalaya, is scheduled to start from September 26.
Terming SMC a game changer for Meghalaya, the health minister said, “Our students, who wish to study and pursue a career in MBBS, have a better option today. Most importantly our students will be totally bounded to function within Meghalaya thereby automatically attending to acute shortage of doctors in our government facilities.”
Being a brown field project, SMC will utilise existing hospitals – Shillong Civil Hospital and Ganesh Das Hospital – as teaching hospitals, eliminating the need for a new hospital infrastructure, she said.
The college plans to introduce specialised courses in future, providing career progression opportunities for doctors in government service.
Expressing confidence over the college’s ability to provide quality medical education, she said while it may take time to achieve top grading, SMC is committed to ensuring excellence in teaching and patient care.
The SMC’s current strength is 8 professors of 16 required, 17 associate professors of 20 required, 21 senior residents or 23 required, and 12 tutor and demonstrators or 15 required, she said. All 25 assistant professors required are in position, she added.
The minister attributed the shortage to the challenges of attracting professors to a remote state like Meghalaya, emphasising the need for competitive salaries and facilities.
She expressed gratitude to chief minister Conrad K Sangma for his intervention in making sure that required teaching faculty members are in place.
Meanwhile, the minister introduced Dr Nicola Gracyl Lyngdoh Iangrai, an experienced ENT surgeon from RIIMS, as the director of Shillong Medical College.
To a question, she clarified that Tura Medical College, unlike SMC is a greenfield initiative that requires building new infrastructure.
