Despite the medical education department fixing a fee structure, private medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh continue to arbitrarily charge extra from students seeking admission.
In a first, the department had fixed the fees for each of the private colleges after evaluating their infrastructure and teaching facilities in April, 2017.
As many as 14 private colleges run MBBS courses, while 25 run BDS course.
“Any extra money charged, apart from the prescribed fee is illegal,” said Dr KK Gupta, director, general medical education (DGME).
Additional chief secretary medical education Anita Bhatnagar Jain, who headed the committee for fixing the fee, said, “Action will be taken if any of the candidates files a complaint.”
Till now, one complaint has been filed at the office of the DGME. “The action can include closure of the college as the fee has been decided by the state government and violation will be termed as financial irregularity,” said Dr Gupta.
WHAT ARE THE EXTRA FEE SLOTS?
Candidates who reach the colleges with allotment letters after the first round of counselling for admission are being asked to pay various fees.
Apart from the college security, which is sufficient for all types of losses that a college expects might happen during five years of studies, security is also being demanded on furniture, hostel and even air conditioning in the buildings. No security is less than ₹one lakh, which puts up an extra cumulative load of ₹ 5 lakh, other than the college security which is already above ₹5 lakh.
Various registrations have been added in the list of fees. Apart from admission fee, there is enrollment fee too in the list. Apart from examination fee there is also evaluation charges while semester fee is separately being charged from students taking admission.
Advanced training fee, research fee, building fee and development charges are some of the additions in the list.
“Total fee other than that mentioned in the order is illegal,” said the DGME.
THE CRITERIA FOR FIXING FEE
The order from the medical education department says no college will charge fee other than what has been prescribed separately for clinical, non-clinical and PG diploma courses.
Colleges that run parallel courses such as paramedical courses along with the MBBS or BDS using same infrastructure were kept in lower fee bracket as they were earning from two separate batches of students. Those running only one course in one building were allowed to take more fees. This included examination of audited balance sheet of colleges.
The order clearly says the colleges are not allowed to mint money from students or commercialize education.
HOW THE FEE WAS FIXED?
The colleges were asked to submit details on teaching and infrastructure against 12-points listed by the medical education department.
Based on the details, each college was given category and a fee bracket that candidates taking admissions will have to pay while pursuing MBBS or BDS.
Those colleges who did not furnish details were allotted flat fee structure by the department.
WHY THE FEE WAS FIXED?
It was a long pending demand from students to fix fees at private colleges as they charged arbitrarily. Colleges not only used to charge fee during admission but also harass students mid-session in the name examination fee, fees for practical and a few other heads.
