Pvt medical colleges granted permission to charge management students 4 times the merit fee

Mumbai: The State ’s consent to private medical colleges to charge management quota students four times the merit seat fee has become as an impediment for post-graduate medical students.

Despite admissions for postgraduate courses beginning early this month, private medical colleges were seen refusing admissions to students, as they were seeking charges for management quota students to be made the same as those of NRI candidates. The NRI quota fee is set at five times the merit seat fee. The first round of admissions ended on Thursday, with private colleges abstaining from participating in it.

Monday’s agreement signed between the state and the Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) with colleges shows the present fee structure to be in the ratio of 1: 4:5, as against the earlier ratio fixed at 1:3:5.

“It is resolved,” a government official told TOI. As per the new ratio fixed, if merit quota (50%) students of a college pay an annual fee of Rs 12 lakh set by the FRA, then the 35% under the management quota category would pay Rs 48 lakh, and the NRI candidates who happen to be 15% of the total strength, Rs 60 lakh.

Read also:FRA diktat of uniform fee for all Quota: Private Medical Colleges demand reversal

Parents, however, are unhappy with the latest hike granted to the management quota.

“Instead of serving notices to these colleges, the government has given in. A complaint should have been registered against each of them and submitted to the Medical Council of India,” said a parent.

With the pact in place, the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) will be issuing a notification for filling of vacant PG seats. The remaining vacant seats from the all-India quota of government colleges and deemed universities will be surrendered

According to experts, private colleges have stood by their stand on PG seats, by abstaining from registering students in PG courses and are sure that a similar stance is likely to be maintained by them towards MBBS admissions.

The first round of admissions witnessed only two private colleges coming out and joining the admission process, besides government institutions. The 2 private colleges who participated in the admission process included —Kashibai Navale, Pune, and ACPM, Dhule. Admissions at these 2 colleges happened after the students signed an undertaking that if the fee rose, they would willingly remit payments due to the college.

Teaching hospitals like Sangli’s Sanjeevani, Bombay Hospital (which has always been with the government), Swastiyog in Miraj and Sancheti in Pune, also admitted PG candidates. Out of the 400 seats at private colleges, 192 still stand unfilled in the present scenario.