AbuBakar
23rd May 2025 · 18 min read
Folks! MDCAT 2024 conducted by UHS on September 22, 2024 proved to be a nightmare for almost the upcoming three years for students dreaming to seek admission in Public Sector Medical & Dental College under UHS, Punjab. But what is the reason behind the merit hike? What impact is it going to have on the dreams of almost 60K+ medical students!?
I am Muhammad Abu Bakr Usman, the Newsroom Incharge and MDCAT Current Affairs Analyst at PreMed.PK and in this blog I am going to cover it all. So put your seatbelts on as I will be covering:
In this section, there are categories for the cut-off merit regarding both public sector medical and dental colleges including open merit, overseas and reciprocal seats etc. But first of all, you have to know about the exact figure of approved public sector medical and dental colleges under UHS in Punjab, by PM&DC. So, there are a total of 17 public sector medical colleges in Punjab with almost 3505 seats having 3122 seats for the students applying on open merit, under UHS while regarding dental colleges, there are a total of 3 public sector dental colleges with a total of almost 294 seats out of which estd 240 are for the students applying on open merit. So, before making it further longer, let's get straight to the point by enlisting the public sector medical and sector colleges under UHS in Punjab, according to their cut off merit.
University of Health Sciences, Lahore issued a total of four merit lists as follows:
The college-wise cut off merit according to final merit lists for open merit MBBS was:
Medical Colleges
Cut-off Merit (According to Final Merit List)
King Edward Medical University, Lahore
96.0591%
Allama Iqbal Medical University, Lahore
95.5955%
Service Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore
95.2682%
Nishtar Medical College, Multan
95.1409%
Ameer-Ud-Din Medical College, Lahore
94.7879%
Rawalpindi Medical University, Rawalpindi
94.7636%
Fatima Jinnah Medical College, Lahore
94.7%
Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad
94.603%
Quaid-e-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur
94.5545%
Gujranwala Medical College, Gujranwala
94.5091%
Sahiwal Medical College, Sahiwal
94.4591%
Khawaja Muhammad Safdar Medical College, Sialkot
94.4439%
Nawaz Sharif Medical College, Gujrat
94.3864%
Sargodha Medical College, Sargodha
94.3864%
Sheikh Zayed Medical College, Rahim Yar Khan
94.3682%
D.G. Khan Medical College, Dera Ghazi Khan
94.3409%
Narowal Medical College, Narowal
94.3%
For other categories, the cut-off merit was:
Categories
Cut-off Merit
Reciprocal Seats
94.3182%
Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT)
93.2136%
Cholistan
93.1182%
Under-developed Districts (Rajanpur Tribal)
90.3273%
Disabled
90.0955%
Overseas
85.7636%
Please keep in mind that the closing aggregate is according to the final merit list and not the upgradation one. As for upgradation, 16 lists were issued for MBBS in public sector medical colleges under UHS in Punjab.
For BDS, a total of 10 upgradation lists were issued. I will be enlisting the closing aggregate according to 10th upgradation list as follows:
Dental Colleges
Cut-off Merit (According to 10th Upgradation List)
Nishtar Institute of Dentistry, Multan
94.1909%
De’ Montmorency College of Dentistry, Lahore
94.1818%
Dental Institute - Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad
94.1545%
While for other categories, the closing aggregate (according to 10th Upgradation List) is as follows:
Categories
Cut-off Merit
Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT)
87.2606%
Under-developed Districts
90.3227%
Disabled Candidates
90.0909%
Overseas Category
85.8727%
So, you did not make it to any Public Sector Medical or Dental College under UHS in Punjab!? Don't worry! Private sector medical and dental colleges are another option for you if you want to pursue your career in the field of medicine without having a gap year.
Before diving into the discussion of private sector medical and dental colleges under UHS in Punjab, you should know that there are a total of 32 private sector medical colleges in Punjab with almost 4000 seats and 17 private sector dental colleges with almost 1025 seats, including all categories.
The closing aggregate for Private Sector Medical Colleges under UHS in Punjab according to open merit was:
*errors and omissions are expected.
The closing aggregate for Private Sector Dental Colleges under UHS in Punjab according to 1st College-wise Selection List issued on 12-03-2025, based on open merit was:
*closing aggregate may vary according to the final merit/selection lists.
As noted in this/the previous blog, the closing aggregate for both public sector medical and dental colleges under UHS in Punjab has sky-rocketed to the peaks this time, but what are the reasons for this!?
You see, merit mainly depends upon the difficulty level and stats of MDCAT of that respective year. So let's get into this!
The MDCAT difficulty level as described by PM&DC is as follows:
In MDCAT, 70% questions are recall based, meaning they are simply book lines or their altered form with more close options while the 30% portion of the test consists of application level based MCQs which means that you have to apply knowledge and concepts to understand and solve those questions. In simple words, they are conceptual questions.
In MDCAT’24 conducted by UHS in Punjab, the difficulty level was not only easy but was a piece of cake for improvers as well as freshers. Improvers get a year to focus on their MDCAT preparation and keeping the figure of students that improve every year and the difficulty level of MDCAT’24 by UHS in mind and then combining both of them, it is not that hard to get 180+ marks. But on the same side, freshers, who put their efforts and dedication to their goal, paved their way this time as well.
Many students in Punjab have FSC background of Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education and having studied books of National Books Foundation, they opt for SZABMU MDCAT. We all know what happened last year so let's keep this debate for another blog but due to the delays in SZABMU’24 MDCAT Reconduct, many students in Punjab (or having Punjab domicile) had already improved their FSC marks by appearing in second annual exams.
While KMU issued the notification about second annual FSC results and declared them invalid for the current session admissions in both public and private sector medical and dental colleges, UHS admission guidebook confirmed the validity of second annual FSC results which proved to be another reason for the hike in merit as those who lacked in FSC got a chance to secure their seat by using their second annual result with improved marks.
In the latest e-Kachehri meeting conducted by PM&DC on May 15, 2025, PM&DC confirmed the validity of 3 years policy which means that MDCAT’24 result can be used for the upcoming three years as well. Now, this is a golden chance for improvers to improve their FSC marks in the session 2025 by appearing in first annual examinations and for those as well who plan to improve their FSC marks further to stand in the safe zone.
While, at the same time, this serves as an injustice to the freshers having dreams of wearing that white coat, in their eyes. Now, let's suppose MDCAT’25 conducted by UHS is tough as compared to the previous tests, improvers can easily use their old result having higher marks BUT! freshers won't stand a chance here. 3 years policy means that the merit can stay hiked up for the upcoming years in Punjab or may decrease gradually.
If you are a fresher reading this, you have got this! You can do it! I always say, your dreams will come true when you will see that ability in you. But! A wise-man always carries a plan B with him. Be so sure that you can do it or have a backup plan if you are unsure or even if there's a small doubt of failure. Failure doesn't mean you cannot succeed, it simply makes you learn how to rise up again after falling down.
If you don't want to take a gap year or don't see private colleges as a worthy choice, you may choose other options in the same field or others. If you are planning to stay in the same field i.e. Allied Health Sciences, you can consider these options:
While some may prefer Pharm-D, DPT or BsN as a fruitful choice, remember that it isn't always the field that carries the scope, it's YOU!
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