New guidelines for lower fees in private medical colleges

Status of medical seats in India

There are 85,000 medical seats in India. There are 41,190 seats in 276 private colleges and 43,237 seats are in 286 government colleges.

Fee Structure of the medical seats till now

Government Fee Regulation: the fee of seats in government colleges is determined either by the central government (for central government-run or autonomous colleges like AIIMS-Delhi) or the respective state governments.

Private Fee System: Some states capped the fee charged by some private medical colleges (But the norms were not uniform across the country). Despite regulations or capped fees in the private colleges, Fees remained much higher than in government medical colleges in that state.  

What are the new National Medical Commission guidelines on fee structure?

For half of the total approved seats in their institute, Private medical colleges, including deemed universities, will have to charge fees equivalent to government medical colleges in their states.

It means 3/4^th of the total MBBS seats (Half of private and total of states) will be available at low cost.

These New National Medical Commission guidelines will come into effect from next year.

How will these seats be allocated?

Seats will be allocated on the basis of NEET-UG Merit. “The students will first be given the seats at government medical colleges; their next option would be the seats in private medical colleges (at government determined fees) and then the rest of the private seats. All admissions will be through merit.”

How will the cost be fixed for the remaining seats in private colleges?

As per new regulations. the internal committee deciding the fee of the private colleges have been brought under the ambit of the state regulatory committees.

Fee Structure to be determined by the operating cost of the medical college. It can be calculated on the basis of the audit report from the previous financial years. For a new college, having no audit report, it can be calculated on an ad-hoc basis based on the audit of the most recently established medical college in the state.

Fixed fee: The fee fixed for a student joining the college should remain the same for the entire duration of the study, subject to inflation adjustment.

The Development Fee can be charged: It can range between 6 to 15% on operating cost, depending on their previous expenditure and development plans at present and linked to national rank once the ranking system is in place.

No capitation fees can be charged by the medical colleges. The determination of the fees will be on a “not-for-profit” basis.

Not to include the cost of running an associated medical hospital of the medical college in the student fees. However, in case, a hospital is running at a heavy loss, it can be spread for period of five to seven years (based on the decision of the state fee regulatory committee).

Source: The post is based on the article “New guidelines for lower fees in private medical colleges” published in the Indian express on 10^th march 2022