Maharashtra: Same fee all all quotas in PG Medical Admissions, says FRA

FRA in a circular to private medical colleges stated that PG Medical Admissions should be quota blind

Mumbai: There is speculation among private managements about the recent move on the part of the Fee Regulating Authority(FRA), (which decides the tuition charges for all professional colleges in Maharashtra) to make the fee for all postgraduate courses and medical courses, quota-blind. The FRA on its part is doing this in order to deal severely, with private management alleged attempts to extract crores of rupees for medical seats, under Management and NRI quotas.

TOI reports that the FRA circular sent to private medical colleges has surprised the latter, which have now decided to go, as far as, to refrain from participating in the admission processes already underway. Many college managements are awaiting a clearer viewpoint from the government.

"I have received a letter from the FRA stating that fees for all three categories-merit seats, institutional seats, and NRI quota-will be the same," Dr Praveen Shingare, Head of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) told the daily.

Though for the moment the FRA’s fee implementation seems to be limited to PG medical admission, there is a fear that it may very soon be made applicable for UG medical course admissions, as well. Private college managements, hostile to the FRA stand regarding PG admissions, have threatened ‘campus closures’ and 'no holding' of admissions this year.

Displeased with the FRA’s decision the private college managements have informed the DMER that no PG admissions would be done this year. "I have kept the government informed about this," added Dr Shingare. The confusion among private management is obvious and according to a Principal who spoke to the

TOI, there were plans for them to redress court on the issue.

Colleges have 35% for institutional quota, 50% seats for merit quota, and 15% are NRI seats. "This is an expenditure-based fee structure and there is no question of charging a higher fee to some student and lower to others," said an FRA member.

Though the argument presented by colleges is that they don't get a fair chance to charge the expenditure-based fee. "When we present our budget for our annual fees, there is negotiation and we cannot charge the fee as per our expenditure. At this rate, our colleges will have to shut down," lamented a Private institute’s managing trustee to TOI.