The Cochin Medical College (CMC) is likely to engage an external agency to conduct admission tests for 15 NRI seats.
However, a decision on such a test depends on the report to be submitted by the District Collector to the government.
The government had asked the collector to submit a report on the assets and liabilities of CMC after the Cabinet decided to take over the medical college.
District Collector P. I. Sheikh Pareeth is expected to submit his report within the next 15 days.
He said he had only recently received the audited reports of the college for the last two years.
Meanwhile, the Cooperative Academy of Professional Education (CAPE), under which the CMC functions, is likely to go ahead with the admission procedures for the medical college as it had done in previous years.
Director of CAPE S. Raveendran said a decision on how to go about the admissions would be taken soon.
According to sources in the medical college, the provision for students under NRI category is a money-spinner for private medical colleges.
While the CMC has fixed a fee amount for NRI seats, there have been widespread allegations in the manner the seats had been allotted in previous years.
K.N. Raghavan, chief executive officer of the medical college during its founding days, and at present, Commissioner of Customs, Kochi, said the college should be taken over by the government since the model that was expected to work had not done well. CMC was set up at a time when the government did not have money to start a medical college, but such an institution should be provided with adequate safeguards for its functioning, he added.
