Tamil Nadu is adding 950 MBBS seats for the academic year 2026-27

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Tamil Nadu will add 950 more MBBS seats in government and private medical colleges for the academic year 2026-27, according to the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) latest undergraduate seat matrix (as on July 13). This increase will take the total number of MBBS seats in 78 colleges in the state to 13,999.

The state now has the third highest number of MBBS seats in the country. Karnataka leads with 15,395 seats, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 14,000 seats.

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The seat matrix released by the NMC includes approvals given by the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) for setting up new medical colleges as well as increasing the intake capacity of existing medical colleges.

Additional seats have been approved in 13 medical colleges in TN – three government and 10 private institutions – while the NMC has also cleared one new private medical college with 150 seats.

After allowing government medical colleges in Namakkal and Tiruppur to increase their MBBS intake from 100 to 150, the NMC also approved a similar increase for the Tiruvallur Government Medical College, increasing its intake from 100 to 150 seats. This added 150 seats to government medical colleges, while private colleges account for the remaining 800 new seats.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Health Minister KG Arunraj said that as a result of sustained efforts by the Health Department, MARB NMC has approved 50 more MBBS seats in each of the three government medical colleges. This has increased the annual intake capacity of each of these three government institutions from 100 to 150 MBBS seats.

Through intensive expansion of the health department’s infrastructure and timely submission of compliance reports, the state government has expanded the total number of MBBS seats in its 36 government medical colleges to 5,200, he said. This reflects the government’s ongoing efforts to strengthen health infrastructure, increase faculty strength and improve health facilities. The state government remains steadfast in maintaining TN’s position as a leading center for health and medical education in the country, said Dr. Arunraj.

He said that the Directorate of Medical Education and Research has been instructed to smoothly integrate these 150 additional MBBS seats in the upcoming state counseling process for 2026-2027. Admissions to all government medical colleges will be strictly as per the final NMC seat matrix, he said.

This overall increase in seats comes at a time when the state is set to lose a significant number of seats after three private medical colleges were given ‘deemed university’ status. The minister recently said that as a result, the state will lose 461 MBBS seats from the state quota. The government is now considering legal action as it would mean that these institutions would no longer have to follow the reservation policy, the 7.5% horizontal reservation for government school students or follow the fee structure prescribed by the state government.

“The increase in medical seats in government and private institutions will offer some relief to students who are facing a wave of private colleges switching to high tuition deemed universities,” said Manickavel Arumugam, an education consultant.

Among private medical colleges, three institutions have been allowed to increase their intake by an additional 100 seats. The remaining seven were allowed to increase their income by another 50 places according to the place matrix.

Published – 16 Jul 2026 0:19 IST