Newer Telangana medical colleges shine in MBBS results

Hyderabad: The traditional belief is that if you want a top-tier medical education in Telangana, then you must get a seat in legacy medical colleges like Gandhi Medical College (GMC) and Osmania Medical College (OMC) in Hyderabad, where the lecture halls brim with cream of the talented lot.

However, the latest Kaloji Narayan Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) MBBS first-year results for the 2025–26 academic year tell a remarkably different story. A quiet but determined academic shift is underway, and its epicentre appears to be not in Hyderabad, but in the newly established medical colleges tucked away in the peripheral locations of Telangana.

While GMC and OMC continue to handle massive student volumes and churn out heavy numbers, it is the smaller district institutions that have quietly stormed to the top of the pass-percentage charts.

Take, for instance, the Government Medical College in Jangaon. Leading the state-wide tally, Jangaon recorded an impressive 99 per cent pass percentage. Out of 100 students enrolled, 99 successfully cleared their first-year exams, featuring 3 distinctions and 42 first-class passes. Close on its heels is Government Medical College, Karimnagar, which secured a remarkable 98 per cent pass rate out of its 100 students.

To put the results in perspective, these district colleges are holding their own and often even outperforming the iconic metropolitan heavyweights. Gandhi Medical College, despite its stellar volume of 33 distinctions and 237 total passes, registered a pass percentage of 94.80 per cent while Osmania Medical College recorded an 87.50 per cent pass rate with 218 students passing out of 250.

The dominance of new but small-capacity government medical colleges, when compared to the illustrious district medical colleges, is even more striking.

Government Medical Colleges in Kodangal and Maheshwaram operate with compact batches of just 50 students each. And yet, both posted a 96 per cent pass rate, with 48 out of 50 students clearing the hurdle. Similarly, Government Medical College in Asifabad, with 100 students, also notched up a 96 per cent pass rate.

Senior faculty point out that the trend of peripheral newly launched medical colleges outperforming known ones is because of the unique advantages of smaller classrooms.

In newly set up district medical colleges, student-to-faculty ratios are often more manageable, allowing professors to offer individual attention, which is harder in bigger-sized classrooms in traditional medical colleges. Crossing the 90 per cent pass percentage threshold shows that geographic isolation is no longer a barrier to medical excellence, senior doctors said.

Some of the pass percentages of other medical colleges include Singareni Institute of Medical Sciences (SIMS) Ramagundam (91.33 per cent), GMC Suryapet (91.33 per cent), GMC Bhupalpally (91 per cent), and GMC Nizamabad (90 per cent).

Performance of government medical colleges (GMC) in districts (In percentage)

Jangaon (99), Karimnagar (98), Kodangal (96), Maheshwaram (96), Asifabad (96), Gandhi Medical College (94.80), Jagityal (94), Quthbullapur (92), Sangareddy (92), Wanaparthy (91.33), SIMS Ramagundam (91.33), Suryapet (91.33), Bhupalpally (91), Nizamabad (90), Rajanna Sircilla (88), Khammam (88), Narsampet (88), Gadwal (88), Mulugu (88), Osmania Medical College (87.50), Siddipet (87.42), ESIC College (87), Nalgonda (86), Adilabad (RIMS) (85.33), Nagarkurnool (83.33), Mancherial (83), Mahabubabad (82), Kamareddy (83), Yadadri Bhuvanagiri (82), Narayanpet (82), Kakatiya Medical College (80.40), Mahabubnagar (80), Vikarabad (80), Kothagudem (75.33), Medak (72), and Nirmal (65)