THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee has provisionally fixed the annual fee for MBBS course in the self-financing colleges at `5.5 lakh for 85 percent of seats. As per the revised fee structure, the NRI seats will now cost `20 lakh.
The committee, chaired by Justice Rajendra Babu, made it clear the fee would be of uniform nature. The managements were demanding the fee to be fixed in the range of `10-15 lakh but the committee, which studied various aspects like expenditure and infrastructure, did not budge.
The committee said the medical college management’s claim for such a high fee appeared to be “exorbitant, exploitative and profiteering.” “The committee scrutinised the previous agreements, the income collected by the medical colleges as tuition fees and took the average for 85% seats. The average amount came to `5.47 lakh and we rounded it off to `5.5 lakh,” the committee said. The committee said it considered the need to protect students from exploitation and provide funds to colleges for efficient functioning before reaching the decision.
The existing fee for NRI candidates was `15 lakh. The medical colleges proposed an increase of `5 lakh and the committee agreed to it on the condition the amount should be kept as corpus for giving scholarship to BPL category candidates. Underlining the provisional nature of its decision, the committee said fresh orders, if there is any difference in the fee, will be issued during the final fee regulation. In case of any complaint, the decision of the FRC will be binding on all parties, subject to the judicial review. Self-Financing Management Association representative Fazal Gafoor said the managements would not accept the decision. “The fee regulatory committee was shirking off its responsibility forcing the managements to move the court” Gafoor said.
The college managements were demanding the fee to be fixed in the range of C10-15 lakh but the committee, which studied various aspects like infrastructure, did not accept their demand.