Maharashtra: Hefty fee hike at deemed and private medical colleges

Mumbai:The government’s attempt to play a fair game in selection of medical aspirants to colleges by implementing NEET for selection of MBBS and Dental College aspirants has brought relief to both parents and students. However, Steep fee hike in deemed universities and private medical colleges is a cause of distress. The promised uniformity of fee is an area where the state governments have not been able to do much.

A student passing out of the Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University’s Medical College paid Rs 6-7 lakh as course fee some five years ago. This year, an aspirant will have to cough up Rs 11. 25 lakh.

The Kasturba Medical College at Manipal will charge nothing less than Rs 40 lakh for the entire course to train the student to become a doctor. While Bharati Vidyapeeth deemed university will charge Rs 11.25 lakh every year for its MBBS course, Dr D Y Patil Deemed University’s Medical College in Pune will charge Rs 16.5 lakh annually.

Brochures of medical and dental colleges clearly mention the new fee hikes for this year’s academic courses.A look at the brochures is indeed a clear reflection of the steep hike in most private medical colleges and deemed universities.

Parents ruefully admit students joining the course this year will pay double the amount compared to the batch passing out this year.

For instance, the tuition fee at D Y Patil Deemed University’s medical college was Rs 7.5 lakh last year. This year, it has shot up to Rs 16 .5 lakh this year with a rider that the annual fee will be increased by three per cent each year;

A student passing out of the Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University’s medical college had paid Rs 6-7 lakh as course fee some five years ago. This year, a medical college aspirant will have to cough up Rs 11. 25 lakh.

And this is just the tuition fee which does not include other costs that will only increase the total amount to be paid.

Parents from Pune who have applied for their wards to various private medical colleges, are finding a steep increase in tution fee of colleges.

At Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai, the annual tuition fee has nearly tripled from Rs 6.5 lakh in 2011 to Rs 18 lakh this year. Parents are complaining that counselling dates for students applying to deemed varsities having been scheduled on September 7 and 8. Leading to clashes between colleges.

“We have applied to several colleges and now dates are clashing. We cannot be physically present at so many places and will now select either one or two to be physically present,” they said.

When contacted, Vivek Saoji, Dean at Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University’s Medical College, said there had been an increase in the fees in the last five years, but the hike was within permissible limits.

“There is a fee fixation committee governed by the University Grants Commission which authorises the fee structure. It is not arbitrarily done. Moreover, apart from a teaching institution, there is an attached hospital and the expenses are met from hiking students’ fees,” he said.

As per a Supreme Court order, a committee also reviews tuition fees charged by private unaided colleges. In Maharashtra, there are eight deemed universities running 10 medical and dental colleges and 17 private unaided medical colleges.

Parents are expressing concern and apprehension about the status of admissions to unaided colleges, which are on hold following a Bombay High Court order on September 3, withholding the publishing of the selection list of MBBS and BDS courses based on the NEET scores for unaided private colleges.

The order came on a petition filed by the Mahatma Gandhi Vidya Mandir, a trust which runs a dental college in Nashik and which had challenged the admission clause which compels only state students to apply to the 85% seats in private institutes.

Across the country, there are 53,330 and 10,000 seats in medical and dental courses respectively. As many as 8.02 lakh aspirants had appeared for the NEET 2015 out of which 4.09 lakh qualified.

In Maharashtra, there are 2,800 medical seats at government medical colleges and another 1,700 in private medical colleges.

Dr Pravin Shingare, director of Directorate of Medical Education and Research, said they were awaiting the Bombay HC verdict on the selection list.