LAHORE: After Islamabad and Sindh, controversies have now haunted the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) conducted by University of Health Sciences (UHS) Lahore in Punjab when over 10,000 candidates obtained 180 out of 200 marks and the number was surprisingly many times higher than those who had got same scores in the MDCAT in the province last year.

The shocking MDCAT-2024 result of the UHS has dashed hopes of hundreds of those students for admissions into the public sector institutes who had Punjab’s domicile and appeared in the MDCAT in Islamabad and other regions where the test results were facing multiple inquiries following the complaints of the candidates regarding the leakage of papers and out-of-syllabus questions.

In Islamabad, around 22,000 students appeared in the MDCAT conducted by the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) and around 10,000 of them were reportedly residents of Rawalpindi alone with Punjab domicile.

Many of them filed complaints with the SZABMU administration and the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PMDC) regarding the controversies surrounding the question papers.

UHS faces backlash over alleged ‘easy’ paper favouring Punjab candidates; VC claims paper developed as per PMDC guidelines

Similarly, the Sindh province was facing inquiries launched following the allegations of leakage of the MDCAT question papers.

An official privy to the development said that the UHS also faced the same situation when the students with Punjab domicile showed grave concerns alleging that this year the admitting varsity (UHS) deliberately changed setting of the MDCAT question papers to throw them out of the race for admissions.

He said according to the laid-down policy, the MDCAT paper must have 60 per cent average and 20pc each difficult and easy question bank to prepare a balanced evaluation.

For years, the UHS had been following the same policy to provide equal opportunities for all the residents of Punjab.

In 2022, the official said, the students with Punjab domicile had appeared in MDCAT in Islamabad and got admissions against 40pc of the total seats in the province’s all public sector medical and dental institutions when they obtained higher marks in the test.

Similarly, over 600 students again got admissions in Punjab’s teaching institutes last year (2023) by showing excellent results in MDCAT conducted by SZABMU, the official said.

This year, the UHS reportedly adopted a strange strategy and prepared a paper which was containing ‘all easy questions’ with a prime objective of increasing the admission ratio of those students who took MDCAT in Punjab only.

“We are fighting for rights at both fronts - in Islamabad where 20 questions were out of syllabus and in Punjab too where the UHS changed the paper setting to accommodate those who took tests in the province with a prime objective of making them eligible to grab maximum seats in the state-run institutes,” says one of the affected students.

The affected students and their parents claimed that the prevailing laws allowed the candidates to exercise the right to take MDCAT from any region and get admission anywhere on the basis of the results announced.

They appealed to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to look into discrepancies in the question papers of MDCAT-2024 and those prepared in previous years to find out as to why paper settings were changed to facilitate the particular number of students.

The official said nearly 56,000 candidates appeared in the MDCAT-2024 to contest for admissions against approximately 8,500 seats of 19 public and 49 private sector medical and dental and colleges in Punjab.

When contacted, UHS Vice Chancellor Prof Ahsan Waheed Rathore clarified that the question paper was developed according to the guidelines of the PMDC and the exam content was based on the prescribed textbooks and the syllabus of the council.

He said the subject specialists, nominated by the Punjab Board Committee of Chairmen, had validated both the question paper and its key to ensure they met the required standards.

“There have been no complaints of any questions being out of the prescribed syllabus”, the UHS VC claimed.

He added that the UHS opened a portal twice after the test to receive feedback on the questions and the answer key.

No complaints were received regarding the exam being too easy or substandard, and the candidates have expressed satisfaction.

The UHS allowed candidates to take the question paper and carbon copies of their answer sheets with them, enabling them to self-assess their performance.

This transparent process was so well-regarded that the Islamabad High Court, in a recent order, directed the admitting university for the Islamabad Capital Territory to adopt a similar practice, as they had not previously provided question papers to candidates.

As a highly competitive exam, only those candidates with the highest merit will be admitted, subject to the availability of seats in public sector medical colleges.

Prof Rahtore said the perceived difficulty of the question paper is subjective; what may seem challenging to one group of candidates may appear easier to another.

However, it is important to note that UHS formulated the MDCAT question paper strictly in accordance with the PMDC syllabus, ensuring that both the level of difficulty and cognitive demands were aligned with the council’s standards, the UHS VC said.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2024