Tamil Nadu adds 950 MBBS seats for 2026-27 academic year

Tamil Nadu will add 950 additional MBBS seats across government and private medical colleges for the 2026-2027 academic year, according to the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) latest seat matrix for the undergraduate course (as of 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.

The seat matrix released by NMC includes approvals granted by the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) for establishment of new medical colleges as well as increase in intake capacity of existing medical colleges, it said.

The additional seats have been approved across 13 medical colleges in TN – three government and 10 private institutions – while the NMC has also permitted the establishment of one new private medical college with 150 seats.

After permitting the Government Medical Colleges in Namakkal and Tiruppur to increase their MBBS intake from 100 to 150 each, NMC has also approved a similar increase for the Government Medical College, Tiruvallur, raising 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.

Health Minister K.G. Arunraj, in a statement issued on Wednesday, said that as a result of sustained efforts taken by the Health department, the MARB of NMC has approved an additional 50 MBBS seats each at the three government medical colleges. With this, the annual student intake capacity in each of these three government institutions has increased from 100 to 150 MBBS seats.

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

He said that the Directorate of Medical Education and Research has been instructed to seamlessly incorporate these 150 additional MBBS seats into the upcoming State counselling process for 2026-2027. Admissions to all government medical colleges will be strictly in accordance with NMC’s final seat matrix, he said.

This overall increase in seats comes at a time when the State is set to lose a considerable number of seats after three private medical colleges obtained “deemed to be university” status. The Minister had recently stated that as a result of this, the State will lose 461 MBBS seats from the State quota. The government is now considering legal action as this would mean that these institutions would no longer be required to follow the reservation policy, 7.5% horizontal reservation for government school students or comply with the fee structure prescribed by the State government.

“The increase in medical seats across government and private institutions will offer partial relief to students facing a wave of private colleges converting to high-fee deemed universities,” Manickavel Arumugam, education counsellor, said.

Among the private medical colleges, three institutions have been permitted to increase their intake by another 100 seats. The remaining seven have been permitted to increase their intake by another 50 seats, according to the seat matrix.

Published – July 16, 2026 12:19 am IST