Despite 4 CAP Rounds, Over 15000 BPharm Seats Remain Vacant in Maharashtra

Over 15,000 B.Pharm seats remain vacant in Maharashtra even after four CAP rounds. Admission delays and low student interest have left colleges struggling to fill seats across the state.

Maharashtra B.Pharmacy admission 2025: Despite conducting four rounds of Centralised Admission Process (CAP), Maharashtra is still witnessing a high number of vacant seats in B.Pharm. This year, the number of leftover seats at over 100 pharmacy colleges is more than 15,000, indicating a worrying trend despite the number of seats offered increasing steadily. The state had raised the total number of seats in pharmacy seats by approving new colleges, but the response was underwhelming from students.

One of the major reasons for the unfilled seats is the delayed admission schedule . Regulatory clearance from the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) and the late release of merit lists, the prolonged counselling process, forced many students not to wait till the final rounds. By the time pharmacy admissions commenced, many students had already taken seats in engineering, medical-related, and other professional courses that followed earlier schedules. The CAP Round 1 of Maharashtra B.Pharmacy Admission 2025 commenced on September 27 and concluded on October 3.

Colleges also report that the growing number of pharmacy colleges in Maharashtra has led to surplus seats than the number of takers. Since there are more seats than actual demand, even old colleges witnessed a drop in the number of applicants this year. Many new colleges found it hard to get students because of doubts about their facilities, accreditation and job prospects.

The shrinking demand for pharmacy students in some parts of the country is also a factor in vacancies. Although the pharma field still has excellent career opportunities, the students are becoming more selective of the universities and want to attend the ones with better infrastructure and industry linkage. Due to this, the mid-tier and rural colleges had the maximum number of empty seats.

In general, the high number of empty seats indicates more fundamental issues in managing pharmacy education in Maharashtra. With the admission process schedules remaining the same and the number of seats not being matched with the real demand, the same vacancy scenario would repeat in the next academic year.

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