At the BRD Medical College in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, an MBBS student of the 2014 batch has remained in the first year for more than a decade! He has never managed to pass the first-year examination and has been residing in the UG hostel ever since.
Under existing medical education rules, a student who fails the first-year MBBS examination is not required to seek fresh admission and can reappear by simply filling in the examination form. Due to this provision, the student's enrolment continues to remain technically valid, preventing the college from cancelling his admission.
However, the medical college authorities claim that in the last eleven years, the student has neither filled in the examination form nor appeared for any subsequent attempts! He is also not engaged in regular academic activities, officials were quoted as saying by news agency PTI. The college did provide him with several counselling sessions, but these failed to make any impact on his attitude, the report added.
On expected grounds, the teachers also tried to get in touch with the student's guardians. However, despite three phone calls from the principal's office asking him to visit the college, the student's father has not turned up so far, the officials said, adding that the father has shown little concern for his son's academic future.
Since the student's active enrolment status makes it difficult to evict him from the hostel, the college administration has now approached the National Medical Commission (NMC) seeking its guidance to resolve the issue.
The officials said mess fees are collected along with the examination form, and since the student has not filled in the form for years, he has not paid mess charges but continues to avail of free boarding and lodging facilities. "A final decision will be taken only after clear directions are received from the NMC," BRD Medical College Principal Dr Ramkumar Jaiswal was quoted as saying by PTI.