It was never this bad for private dental colleges in Karnataka. Twelve out of the 28 dental colleges affiliated to Comed-K did not get a single student from Comed-K.
In fact, Comed-K had bagged a lion's share of seats in 2007-08, higher than last year. It ended up with 65 per cent of seats, which translates into 830 seats. As many as 541 seats, or 60 per cent of seats, remained vacant. Last year, of the 578 Comed-K seats, 256 remained vacant.
Surprisingly, some reputed colleges are also in the zero enrollment list. These colleges were offering seats anywhere from 16 to 40.  However, Comed-K officials said there is a possibility these colleges might have got some students from the CET Cell.
However, it’s a different situation for the CET Cell as it managed to fill up 75 per cent of seats. This year, the government got 800 seats, of which 200 remain unfilled. Last year, 800 out of the 1,000 odd seats were vacant.
The private colleges said high fees was one of the reasons. The government scrapped higher fee category this year, which proved advantageous to them. The tuition fee for students claiming CET seats was Rs 32,500, while a similar seat through Comed-K would cost Rs 2.3 lakh.
“The Comed-K conducted a special round of counselling after the Medical Council of India (MCI) approved increase in medical seats for some colleges. Students who had opted for dental course in first round opted for medicine. Thus, some seats in dental stream remained unfilled,'' Dr A C Ashok, Advisory Committee Member, Comed-K, said.
He said students are cautious while selecting colleges. “Even prior to seat selection process, students visit colleges and check the facilities,” he added.
V S Dental College Assistant Professor Dr Ashish Shetty said the opportunities for dentists are more in rural areas. “A majority of the population resides in the rural areas but students are reluctant to work there. In urban sector, demand for dentists is less. Therefore, students prefer to choose other courses as they offer better prospects,” he added.
A dental college principal felt mushrooming of medical colleges and lack of infrastructure in dental colleges were reasons why students were shunning dental courses.