Tamil Nadu will establish seven new government nursing colleges with a combined intake of 660 BSc Nursing students, expanding access to nursing education across six districts and Coimbatore. The move follows a government order issued on September 16 and will use existing facilities at government medical colleges for the current academic year.
Six colleges will be established in Namakkal, Tiruchirappalli, Dharmapuri, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai and Tirunelveli. Each will admit 100 students annually, adding 600 undergraduate nursing seats. A seventh college at the Coimbatore Government Medical College and ESI Hospital will have an annual intake of 60 students.
The expenditure for the six colleges will be Rs 270.26 crore and will be met by the Tamil Nadu Dr M G R Medical University, according to the government order. The order gives effect to an announcement made by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay in the Assembly.
The new colleges are being introduced against a stated gap in the expansion of government nursing education. While making a statement under Rule 110 in the Assembly, Vijay said no new government nursing colleges had been started in Tamil Nadu since 2014. The government has said the expansion is intended to produce nursing, pharmacy and paramedical personnel required to provide medical services.
The Assembly announcement covered a wider increase in healthcare education capacity. Along with the 660 seats in the seven new BSc Nursing colleges, the government had proposed 1,925 additional seats in existing nursing colleges and nursing schools, 2,778 seats in 12 paramedical courses and 735 additional pharmacy seats. Together, these additions were described as creating 6,098 additional seats at an estimated cost of Rs 351 crore.
The decision also connects education capacity with staffing requirements in the public health system. Earlier in September, the state government issued a notification to fill 4,724 nursing vacancies across Tamil Nadu on a contractual basis through the National Health Mission. The new colleges will expand the pipeline of trained nursing graduates, while the vacancy notification addresses an immediate requirement for personnel.
However, the government order specifies that manpower for the approved intake will be engaged strictly on a temporary or contractual basis and only to the extent required. It states that no permanent posts will be created and that the engagement will not create additional pensionary or other continuing liability for the government.
Using existing facilities at the respective medical colleges is expected to allow the new intake to begin in the current academic year. The order places the expansion within the state’s existing medical college network, rather than announcing separate construction timelines for new campus facilities. The six district locations will extend government nursing education capacity beyond the state’s established centres, while the Coimbatore facility will operate through an existing government medical and ESI hospital campus.
