Chennai: The state will create 6,098 new seats across nursing, pharmacy and paramedical courses at govt institutions, including seven new nursing colleges, chief minister C Joseph Vijay announced in the assembly on Wednesday. Tamil Nadu has set aside ₹351 crore for building the colleges and creating the additional seats.The state will add 2,585 nursing seats, including 660 BSc seats at new colleges and 1,925 more at existing colleges — the first such expansion of nursing capacity since 2014. It will also add 2,778 seats across a dozen allied health courses and 735 additional pharmacy seats.Students joining these courses at govt colleges will pay lower tuition fees than most private colleges, while gaining exposure to the clinical caseload at govt medical colleges and hospitals. “To get them job-ready, the govt will offer training in foreign languages such as German and Japanese, and skill development programmes,” a senior health official said.Japan will need an additional 3 lakh to 13 lakh nursing professionals in the coming years as its population ages, while Germany is projected to need roughly 5 lakh more nurses by 2030. Nurses placed in either country can earn ₹18 lakh to ₹24 lakh a year. The allied health courses on offer will include training for cathlab technicians, health physicists and nutritionists, the official said.Tamil Nadu now has six state-run nursing colleges. In 2023, then-health minister Ma Subramanian said the Centre approved 11 new nursing colleges with 1,110 seats, but that never materialised.Officials said the new seats are designed to serve another purpose as well — feeding the pipeline of nurses, pharmacists and paramedics needed across govt hospitals. Students and interns from these courses will provide care at medical college hospitals.
