Kerala: Private medical college managements demand parity in fee

Kerala: Private medical college managements (of different private medical institutes) in the state has reportedly stated that they will only agree on a seat sharing arrangement with the government, if there is a uniform fee.

The reason cited by the demand by private medical college managements is that their spending is more per MBBS student. If the fee charged is compared to this spending, they allege that no college is even able to recover the cost they incur (on each student).

"We spend almost Rs 10 per MBBS student, per year. However, we are not allowed to collect sufficient fees from the students. How can we run an institution in loss," said Kerala Private Medical College Management Association secretary Anilkumar Vallil to TOI.

The main argument seems that while Christian medical colleges collects Rs 4.5 lakh as a standard fee, they are however, denied the same provision. Private medical colleges are only allowed to collect Rs 25,000 from 20 % government quota students per year.

5 % admissions in SC/ST government category fetches them Rs 2.6 lakh, while 25 % students under government quota gives it Rs 1.85 lakh. Compare this with students who seek admission through management quota, which stands at 35%. It fetches them Rs 8.5 lakh and NRI quota which is 15% gives them 12.5 lakh per annum.

Kerala currently has 29 medical colleges. 9 are government medical colleges, and one is co-operative college. The balance is under private management, with 5 under Christian managements.

It may be noted that amid confusion after the SC declared its verdict on NEET, and even directed private medical colleges to not-hold their own entrance exams; there have been reports emerging that private medical institutes in certain states have hikes their fees.

MD team earlier reported that, in what seems to be a after-effect of Supreme Court recent order on NEET, Tamil Nadu’s private universities are ready to shift their focus to increasing course fee to make their money Jumping at the opportunity, private medical colleges here have hiked the fee for MBBS this year. As a result of which, students seeking admission in a private medical college will end up paying a steep fees of Rs 80-lakh for the complete course.