Rs.4.85 lakhs fee fixed for Christian Medical Colleges in Kerala

Thiruvanathapuram: The Justice Rajendra Babu headed fee regulatory committee has fixed the annual fee for 4 Christian Medical Colleges at Rs. 4.85 Lakh, with the exception of NRI seats for the academic term 2017-18. The NRI seat fee has been fixed at Rs. 18 lakh. Admissions for these four medical colleges seats earlier were held with a tuition fee of Rs. 5 lakh for 85 percent seats and Rs 20 lakh for the 15 percent NRI seats. The 2018-19 academic term fee was fixed by the committee at Rs. 5,60,000 per annum allowing a 10 percent increase in the previous year's tuition fee of Rs 4,85,000.

The 4 colleges in question are Jubilee Mission Medical Colege, Thrissur, Pushpagiri Medical College, Thiruvalla, Kolencherry Medical College, Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thrissur.

The Tuesday order of the Committee stated that as per section 11 (1) of Kerala Medical Education (Regulation and control of admission to private medical educational institutions Act (Act 15 of 2017)), it was authorized to fix the fee of all state self-financing medical institutions.

The order further added that the Kerala Christian Professional College Managements' Federation, consisting of four medical colleges, including one dental college, had in a mutual collaboration on May 13, 2015, decided to agree on the seat-sharing and fee structure.This was decided for the member colleges for the academic years 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 for MBBS and BDS courses.

Speaking to the Deccan Chronicle, Federation Coordinator, George Paul said the committee's role was restricted to rectifying anomalies in fee fixed by colleges and did not have any role to play in fixing of the fee of the medical colleges, as per the Supreme Court verdict.

The fee fixation power given to the committee was the result of a law passed by the state government. Though the law has already been challenged by the college managements in the High Court for not being in line with the Supreme court verdict Mr. Paul added.

"How can the committee fix the same fees for all the four colleges which have different infrastructure?" he asked. It does not make much difference if the fee is Rs 5 lakh or Rs 4.85 lakh. However, there are problems regarding the fee for NRI quota. It was fixed earlier at Rs 20 lakh so that Rs 5 lakh from each student could be utilized to provide a scholarship for financially backward students. Now the amount would have to be reduced to Rs 3 lakh from each NRI seat," Mr. Paul told the daily.