No Hike in MBBS and PG Fees This Year in Maharashtra’s Private Medical Colleges

India's medical field is ever-evolving, as is its medical education. Last week, the Union Health Ministry launched a uniform curriculum for allied healthcare professions, aiming to provide competency-based learning and to standardize these courses.

Every year, lakhs of medical aspirants appear for the medical entrance examination (NEET) but fail to obtain a seat in a government medical college due to the limited number of seats and high competition. These unfortunate aspirants are often left with two options: seek admission in private medical colleges or pursue medical education abroad, primarily due to the exorbitant fees charged by private institutions in India.

The high fees are due to the lack of government subsidies and the substantial investment required to run medical institutions. Many students from middle- or low-income families take educational loans and suffer from medical debt in these situations. Some states have introduced fee regulation policies and seat quotas (such as merit-based, management, and NRI quotas) to improve affordability, but disparities remain a major concern in India's medical education system.

While prestigious institutions like AIIMS charge less than ₹8,000 for the whole course and other government colleges charge less than ₹1 lakh per year, the sky-high fees of private medical colleges might baffle an outsider.

Private colleges often charge over ₹10 lakh annually, amounting to more than ₹50 lakh for the full duration of the MBBS course. This year, they have opted for no fee hike and will continue with the rates from the last academic year. Though it might be a welcome move for medical aspirants, it's still a big amount for the middle class.

Among them are colleges in Maharashtra, like Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Memorial Medical College, which charged ₹10.8 lakh for the MBBS course and ₹12.3 lakh for MD/MS courses last year.

As per the latest media report by TOI, for postgraduate courses, institutes including Mumbai-based Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Sciences, Jawahar Medical Foundation’s ACPM, Sanjeevan Medical College, and IIMSR in Warudi have decided to keep last year’s fee rates, which are around ₹10 lakh per year.

Private medical colleges in India often charge students additionally in the name of hostel fees, caution deposits, and other amenities. The Fee Regulation Authority (FRA) of Maharashtra has instructed colleges to cap the caution deposit at ₹50,000. Despite these efforts, colleges flout these rules. In this regard, FRA conducted raids in these colleges during the admission process earlier this year.

Critics argue that India should impose stricter penalties for fee violations and increase transparency to protect future doctors from excessive financial burdens, ensuring that quality medical education is a right for all, not a privilege.

(Input from various sources)

(Rehash/Dr. Theresa Lily/MSM)

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