Faridkot, July 1: Huge variation in MBBS fee structure among private medical colleges for MBBS course in the state has left many students confused. For 350 management quota seats of 1,125 MBBS seats in the state, while four private medical colleges are charging Rs 40.29 lakh as tuition fee for full course, Bathinda-based Adesh Medical College has fixed its tuition fee at Rs 63.95 lakh. The Department of Medical Education and Research (DMER) fixes the tuition fee for three government and four private medical colleges.
However, Adesh Medical College has been given full autonomy to fix its fee structure this time. For 500 MBBS seats in three government medical colleges at Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot, the state government has fixed Rs 4.44 lakh as full course tuition fee. While the tuition fee for about 200 government quota seats in four private medical colleges is fixed at Rs 13.43 lakh, the fee for management seats in these private colleges is Rs 40.29 lakh. However as Adesh Medical College does not offer any government quota seat, the fee structure for its 127 MBBS seats is quite high. All other private colleges in Punjab have 50 per cent government quota seats. As per the state government-approved fee structure of all colleges except Adesh, Rs 11.9 lakh is the tuition fee for the first year of MBBS course with 10 per cent increase every year. The college will charge the fee for four-and-a-half years. For its 23 NRI quota MBBS seats, the college has fixed $1.25 lakh as full course fee. However, the fee for NRI quota seats in all other private medical colleges is $1.1 lakh. On the huge difference in fee structure, Dr Sujata Sharma, Director, DRME, Punjab, said, “As Adesh Medical College runs under a private university in the state, the college has the liberty to decide its own fee structure.” Though the fee for MBBS course is quite high in Adesh College, the fee for its BDS seat is not much. For management quota seat in BDS course, while four medical/dental colleges in the state are charging Rs 7.81 lakh as tuition fee, Adesh has fixed about Rs 10 lakh as full course fee for dental course. For NRI quota BDS seats, Adesh has fixed $44,000, which all other private dental colleges are charging. The reason for this relaxation is that more than 50 per cent BDS seats in dental colleges in the state remained vacant for the past three years.
News Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com
