Maharashtra pharmacy colleges struggle to fill seats; 15,936 BPharm, 815 MPharm seats vacant after last round

Maharashtra has concluded admissions to BPharm and MPharm courses today for the academic year 2025-26. Despite multiple rounds of Centralised Admission Process (CAP) counselling, a significant number of seats remain vacant across institutes. A total of 15,936 BPharm and 815 MPharm seats are lying vacant after the last round, Careers360 learnt.

Pharmacy colleges in the state had earlier come under scrutiny for non-compliance with PCI norms, leading to a ban on admissions in 89 institutions in September. Later, the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) later revoked the ban on 42 pharmacy colleges after they met compliance requirements.

The Maharashtra state minister of higher and technical education Chandrakant Patil had also warned of stopping the Maharashtra CAP pharmacy admission if the institutes did not comply with the orders.

As per the final merit list, 52,666 candidates were listed in the Maharashtra state merit list and 55,116 under the All India merit list. Despite the large participation, the number of seats filled remains low.

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30% BPharm seats vacant in Maharashtra

A total of 531 pharmacy institutes participated in the Maharashtra BPharm counselling 2025, offering 46,350 CAP seats and 2,528 management quota seats, taking the total to 48,878 seats.

At the end of all four CAP rounds, in addition to ACAP, and management intake, 32,942 students were admitted, leaving 15,936 seats vacant – over 32% of BPharm seats remaining unfilled.

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8% MPharm seats remain vacant

For MPharm admissions, 229 institutes with a total intake of 8,624 CAP seats and 732 management quota seats participated in the state counselling. A total of 8,541 seats were filled out of 9,356 seats. MPharm admissions were better compared to undergraduate pharmacy courses. However, over 8% of seats remained unfilled even after the last round of counselling.