KARACHI: Over 160,000 candidates will appear for this year’s Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT), which is being held simultaneously on September 22 at 30 centres nationwide, as well as in Riyadh and Dubai.

According to officials, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has assigned the responsibility of conducting the test to six universities in the country: the University of Health Sciences in Punjab, Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) in Sindh, Bolan University of Medical and Health Sciences in Balochistan, Khyber Medical University in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University in Islamabad and Azad Kashmir, and Karakoram International University in Gilgit-Baltistan.

A total of 167,077 candidates are competing for 17,615 MBBS seats and 3,837 BDS seats across the country.

The PMDC reported that 174,744 students submitted online applications for the MDCAT, out of which 167,077 students will sit for the test. Additionally, two centres will be established abroad, in Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

In Sindh, over 38,000 candidates will take the exam, which is being conducted by DUHS for the third consecutive year.

According to DUHS officials, the admission test will be held simultaneously at six centres in five cities across Sindh: Karachi, Shaheed Benazirabad (Nawab­shah), Larkana, Hyderabad (Jamshoro), and Sukkur.

In Karachi, with 12,846 candidates, the test will be conducted at two centres: NED University and DUHS’ Ojha campus.

The Liaquat University of Health Sciences and Bilawal Sports Complex have been designated as exam centres in Jamshoro (for over 12,000 candidates) and Shaheed Benazirabad (for 2,800 candidates), respectively. The IBA Public School and the Police Training Centre will serve as exam centres in Sukkur (for 5,500 candidates) and Larkana (for 4,800 candidates), respectively.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2024