THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Self-financing medical colleges (SFMC ) in the state have often faced flak for fleecing students. Now, a few of these institutions have gone a step further by demanding fees of the upcoming academic year in advance at a time when classes of the current academic year have barely started. The demand for advance payment of fees has come as a blow to parents who are reeling under severe economic crisis owing to the pandemic.
Till now, self-financing medical colleges used to collect fees of the upcoming academic year only after the course and examination of the previous year were completed. Most of these institutions have now issued notice demanding fees for fifth year from the 2017-18 batch, fourth year fees from 2018-19 batch and fees for third year from 2019-20 batch. For instance, a student of 2018-19 batch, whose online classes for third year has not even started, will have to pay fees for the fourth year in advance. Interestingly, the second year exams of these students have not yet been conducted.
In August last year too, the colleges demanded the fees of the upcoming academic year in advance despite the raging pandemic. Many parents had paid up promptly to ensure uninterrupted classes for their children. The Covid situation did not deter self-financing colleges from collecting huge amounts from students, including hostel and mess fees even during the lockdown. On an average, students have to shell out `8 lakh to `9.5 lakh annually. The Parents Coordination of Medical Students (PCOMS), an association of parents of students in self-financing medical colleges, had approached the government against advance collection of fees in an arbitrary manner.
The state government on its part is learnt to have cited limitations in intervening in feerelated matters in self-financing medical institutions. PCOM S has also submitted a petition to the Admission Supervisory/Fee Regulatory Committee for Professional Colleges headed by Justice (Retd) R Rajendra Babu. The parents’ association urged the committee to restrain the institutions from collecting fees in advance before completing the course period of the previous year.
“We have also demanded that the colleges should also be restrained from taking any coercive action against students who could not pay fees for the next academic year,” said Anil K S, general secretary of PCOMS. The parents’ association is also planning to take legal recourse in case their complaints are not addressed by the authorities. Meanwhile, self-financing medical college managements said the fee was collected as per the schedule fixed by the fee regulatory committee. “The salary of the medical college staff and the day-to-day expenses for running the institutions are being met through the fees collected from students. Even if the course extends by many months owing to the pandemic, the total fee collected for entire course period would remain the same,” said Dr Fazal Gafoor, head of the MES Group of Institutions.