India, Nov. 19 -- Nearly 33% of the seats in Maharashtra's pharmacy colleges, including both degree and postgraduate programmes, have remained vacant this year, raising concerns within the state's higher and technical education department.

According to data from the state's Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell, 15,936 Bachelor of Pharmacy seats were left unfilled out of a total 48,878 available. In the Master of Pharmacy programme, 815 seats remained vacant out of 8,624. While pharmacy admissions were completed recently, officials noted that the number of vacancies has increased compared to last year, when around 14,000 B.Pharm seats were vacant.

Experts said that excessive approvals for new colleges, despite limited demand, have created an ...