Maharashtra Private Medical Colleges hike MBBS fee by Rs 1 lakh this year
Mumbai: The private medical colleges in Maharashtra will charge the MBBS aspirants slightly higher fees this year with an increase of up to Rs 1 lakh per annum. However, the hike is marginal and the fee structure at most of the medical colleges is steady.
In fact, in a few of the medical colleges, the tuition fees have been reduced due to the increased scrutiny by the Fee Regulating Authority (FRA). While commenting on the matter, an FRA official told TOI that the decline in expenditure during the COVID-19 pandemic may have contributed to the lower increase of fees.
"For the last few years we have been considering the higher fees charged under NRI and institutional quota as colleges' income, which has helped in keeping the hikes stable," said the official.
The MBBS fees at Prakash Institute of Medical Sciences in Sangli was last year slashed by almost 40% and the Fee panel had brought it down from Rs 8.4 lakh to Rs 4.84 lakh per annum. However, later the college requested for a review and the final fee was fixed at Rs 5.75 lakh.
As per the latest media report by The Times of India, this year, Prakash Institute has probably seen the highest increase of fees, compared to others. The MBBS fees at the medical college have now gone up to Rs 7.05 lakh per annum.
In the case of Kashibai Navale Medical College in Pune, the students will now have to pay a tuition fee of Rs 14.23 lakh. Last year, the MBBS fees at this college was fixed at Rs 13.91 lakh. This college is one among the colleges that charge relatively higher fees.
In the case of a couple of colleges, where the fees were the lowest i.e. Rs 6 lakh a couple of years ago, it has now been increased to Rs 8 lakh.
FRA is the authority that invites proposals from medical colleges regarding fee hike. FRA only approves a fee hike if it thinks it to be justified, after scrutinising the expenditure and balance sheet. Thereafter, the fixed fees are released in their minutes, and colleges have the option to later seek a review.
For the academic session 2023-2024, the fees of all medical colleges have been fixed by FRA except for two colleges, the newly started Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical College and Hospital in Pune and Palghar's Vedantaa Institute of Medical Sciences.
Last year, Medical Dialogues reported that in a major relief to the MBBS aspirants in Maharashtra, several private unaided medical colleges in the State had decided not to increase their annual fees. In fact fees in an institute like Prakash Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Sangli was reduced by almost 40 percent.
FRA had last year allowed a reasonable increase of fees ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh in some institutes that demanded increase. This is in contrast to previous trends when the overall hike in fees across several unaided MBBS colleges in the State was between Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakhs per annum. Back then, several colleges had cited the deficit in the hospital revenue during the pandemic as the reason for increasing the fees.
This year also, the fee structure at most of the colleges has been kept steady. However, in some of the colleges it has been increased up to Rs 1 lakh per annum.
However, parents have claimed, that even though there is no increase, the fees are unaffordable as most colleges charge more than Rs 10 lakh per annum including caution deposits and other expenses.
While commenting on the matter, the mother of an aspirant told TOI that while the tuition fee is stable, some colleges charge higher caution money and other refundable deposits, which run into a few lakhs.
