Karnataka government pondering over a 10 percent fee Hike in MBBS, BDS courses

Bengaluru: Medical Dental education in the state may witness an increase with the medical Education Minister DK Shivakumar on Monday announcing the possibility of a 10% dental fee hike for the 2018-19 academic year. He also revealed that college managements were desirous of an increase in pay scales as well.

The minister had convened a meeting last week with private medical and dental college managements to sign a consensual agreement, however, a decision is yet to emerge. The management's demand for a hike in pay scale calls for another meeting

The Chairman, Karnataka Professional Colleges Foundation, however, has expressed the desire on the part of the college managements to have this hike be of 15%. However, the reluctance on the part of the government, revealed sources, has led to the management giving their nod to a 10% hike.

The Karnataka Religious and Linguistic Minority Professional Colleges' Association has also voiced a 15% fee hike to the government.

While the government quota category fee in private medical colleges, for the year 2017-18 cost Rs. 77,000, the institutional quota charges in private medical colleges were Rs. 6.32 lakh reported the Hindu.

In the past, Karnataka bore the lowest fee structure in comparison to its other counterparts, however with the coming in of the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) the state has witnessed a steep increase in the fee of medical and dental courses.

The denial on the part of the Medical Council of India for new colleges to be started in the state, Mr. Shivakumar said the State shall redress court for the same

Karnataka has lost nearly 800 medical seats from six colleges, including a government college, this year.

In an earlier story done by medical dialogues it was reported that 68 upcoming medical colleges have not made it to the list of approved medical colleges, as the Health Ministry has announced its DISAPPROVAL to issue the letter of the establishment to these medical colleges. With this disapproval, 9000 new MBBS seats will not be available for the admission quota for the year 2018-19.

Besides disapproving these new medical colleges, Health Ministry has also denied permission of renewal to 82 existing medical colleges.

Read also: 68 New Medical Colleges denied establishment permission this year, 9000 MBBS seats lost