Do not Charge MBBS Fees in Advance: FRA directs Nagpur's Medical College

Nagpur: The Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) has asked a medical college in Nagpur not to ask for academic fees in advance from the MBBS students. FRA has directed the dean of the medical college to submit an undertaking in this regard, promising that they would not charge any advance fees.

This comes after the fee panel received a complaint in this regard from the father of a second-year student at NKP Salve Institute of Medical Sciences. Writing to FRA, the father of the medico claimed that the medical college asked them to pay the tuition fees for three academic years within 18-20 months of the admission.

Although FRA issued the directive in March, it was revealed only recently in the minutes of the meeting released by the authority.

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As per the latest media report by the Free Press Journal, the college claimed that it has since 'resolved' the said grievance. Despite this, FRA has asked the institute to submit an affidavit to undertake that it would comply with the Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions and Fees) Act, 2015.

Apart from this, the authority also asked the institute for publishing the fee payment schedule for the entire four-and-a-half-year duration of the course, as was requested by the complainant.

Under the 2015 Act, professional colleges cannot collect more than a year's fee in an academic year. Further, the Act specifies that the excess amount amount demanded by the college would be considered as a capitation fee, possibly inviting action against the institute.

Even though the college has not accepted or refuted the student's allegation in any of the records during the proceedings of the FRA hearing, the representative of the institute told the authority that the complainant had agreed to withdraw its grievance as there was a "miscommunication" and "misunderstanding".

The college claimed that the complainant had requested for disposing of the complaint. In fact, the complainant/student's father did not appear before the authority on the designated hearing date and he had also written an e-mail to FRA in March stating that he had decided to withdraw the complaint "considering the prospects and professional career" of his son. He mentioned that he decided not pursuing the matter as his identity had been revealed.

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