Allow Private Medical Colleges to fix up their fee: Niti Ayog Panel

Once a merit-based transparent admission system (with reservations for the deprived sections as determined by State governments) is in place, there is no need to regulate the fees charged by private medical colleges. Medical institutions may be required to transparently advertise the tuition and any other fees upfront on their websites with no other fees permitted. There remains the issue of some meritorious students not being able to afford the fees prescribed by private medical colleges. Moreover, there is a longstanding practice of States filling a certain proportion of the seats in these colleges at lower than normal fees. Thus an entirely laissez faire approach to fee regulation may not be feasible. It may be recalled that both the Roy Choudhury committee and the Parliamentary Standing Committee have expressed concerns regarding the high cost of medical education for students and in favour of capping the fees.

In view of these competing arguments and interests, a balance is required between the giving a free hand to the promoters of the institution and avoiding disruption of the prevalent practice. Accordingly, the committee recommends that NMC may be empowered to fix norms for regulating fees for a proportion of seats (not exceeding 40% of the total seats) in private medical colleges. For the rest, the institution may be given full freedom to charge the fees that they deem appropriate. This will provide for cross subsidization from the rich to more meritorious but poor students or students from disadvantaged groups.