The Oxford Dental College & Hospital, Bommanahalli

Location:

The Oxford Dental College & Hospital (ODC) is located on Hosur Main Road near an area called Bommanahalli in the South-Eastern region of Bangalore. It is quite far from the centre of city and it takes a lot more time to travel due to traffic, however reaching there is easy by BMTC buses. 360, 600 series and 356 series are the buses starting from Majestic and they all come via different routes covering various areas providing good connectivity with major areas of the city.

Infrastructure:

The campus of Oxford Dental College is big but space is not properly utilized and a space crunch is felt owing to new buildings that have come up to accommodate for recently started courses. Infrastructure of the college is average. While classrooms and library are quite nice, labs are just okay. All the required equipment is available in the labs but there is no running water which is a must while performing an experiment or seeing a patient. Library is spacious and stuffed with enough books. There is also internet accessibility in library but no wifi connectivity in college. A common complaint by students is that there is no proper ground or other facilities for sports. Another complaint is that only 2 out of 4 lifts are working and those two also get stuck often between floors.

There are hostels in the campus for boys and girls. They are in a pitiful condition. Rooms are small and tolerable when compared to engineering/MBA hostels in the adjoining wing. There is acute shortage of water in the hostels as well. There is also a power cut during 3pm to 8pm daily. Girls’ hostel is tremendously strict. They are not allowed to leave campus during the week barring Wednesdays on which they should be back by 7 in the evening. On other days too you are not supposed to roam in campus after 9.30. For boys luckily there is no such time restriction. Hostel charges are 35,000 per year plus 2000 a month for food which sums up to about 60k a year.

Fees:

For Karnataka CET students – Rs 30000 a year.
For COMEDK students – Rs 1.75 Lakh per year.

Faculty:

Faculty at Oxford Dental College although knowledgeable and good at their subjects, are rude and cranky to most students. Many are said to be biased towards local students especially in the 1^st year where majority teachers are students who are currently pursuing their PG. They are also well-versed with the subjects barring a few such as anatomy. Overall they’re good but strict and known to hold prejudice.

Attendance & Discipline:

They’re very strict for attendance and disciplinary issues; may be not as much as engineering college under same trust but strict nevertheless. Prescribed norm for attendance is 75% but they expect much more and over 90% in practicals. However students attend willingly irrespective of norm. Apron has to be worn whenever you are in the college. And as mentioned earlier hostels are very strict.

Crowd:

A well-diversified crowd is there consisting of Malayalis (major chunk), students from north-east (10%) and local Bangalore students. And there are numerous foreigners and NRIs too. Girls greatly outnumber boys.

Hangouts:

There’s nothing much nearby. Students generally go to canteen when they bunk. Else Forum Mall and Total Mall are the closest places which are decent enough to go to.

Canteen:

The canteen is quite spacious. It offers a good variety of dishes and ‘Gobi Manchurian’ is the most popular item. Leaving apart a few things most items taste the same that is equally bad. NRIs complain of getting food poisoning by eating here.

Festivals:

An intra-college cultural festival of Oxford Dental College is held in March and you can also participate in engineering college festival held in May.

Hospitals Affiliated:

Parent hospital (dental) and Jayadeva hospital in Jayanagar (for general and super-speciality) are the two hospitals where students are placed for internships.

Contact:

The Oxford Dental College & Hospital,
10th Milestone, Bommanahalli,
Hosur Road, Bangalore - 560 068.
Phone: 080 - 3021 9601 / 3021 9701
Email:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website: www.theoxford.edu

Verdict:

The Oxford Dental College is certainly not the best college for dental; it is rather a very okay college. The faculty is decent and practical exposure is also sufficient for UG students but location, lack of extra curriculars, lack of hangouts and stern imposition of discipline remain major drawbacks.