No MBBS, PG medical fee hike this year in Maharashtra Private Medical Colleges
MBBS Fees
Mumbai: In a relief to many medical aspirants in the State, some of the private medical colleges in Maharashtra have decided not to implement a fee hike for the upcoming academic session 2025-2026.
TOI has reported that among the colleges charging more than Rs 10 lakh as fees are two colleges that offer the sought-after MBBS programmes and five offer MD/MS courses.
Dr. Punjabrao Deshmukh Memorial Medical College, Amravati, charged Rs 10.8 lakh as MBBS fees last year and Rs 12.3 lakh as the fees for MD/MS courses. The college has decided to continue with the same fee structure this year as well. The MBBS fees for Talegaon's MIMER Medical College will also remain constant at Rs 11.3 lakh.
As per the latest media report by the Times of India, for postgraduate MD/MS courses, institutes including Mumbai-based Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Sciences (Rs 10 lakh fees), Dhule-based ACPM Medical College (Rs 10.74 lakh), Miraj-based Sanjeevan Medical College (Rs 9.6 lakh fees), and Warudi's JIIU's Indian Institute of Medical Science and Research (Rs 9 lakh fee) have decided to maintain the same fees as last year.
While welcoming the decision of private medical colleges not to implement a fee hike, parent representative Sudha Shenoy mentioned that while no fee hike is always good news for the students, many private medical colleges are overcharging students in the name of security deposits, hostel fees, and club charges.
Shenoy pointed out that one of the PG medical colleges witnessed the fee double last year and alleged that meant of these private medical colleges do not even pay any stipend to the resident doctors at par with the government medical colleges.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that bringing a cap on the "deposit" charged by the private medical colleges offering health science courses, the Fee Regulatory Authority (FRA) of Maharashtra had ordered that the medical colleges could not charge more than Rs 50,000 as caution money. This cap was of Rs 10,000 for B.Sc Nursing courses.
Back then, the Maharashtra FRA had pointed out how colleges charged the deposit under different heads such as laboratory, library and hostel and directed that the amount collected from the students as refundable caution money should be kept in separate bank account and be periodically invested with a nationalised bank. It had ordered that the interest accrued on such deposits would have to be shown in the accounts of the institute for fee fixation as a separate head of income.
Earlier this year, the Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) decided to conduct surprise inspections at the private medical colleges across the State following complaints of excessive fees charged during admissions.
Now, commenting on the private medical colleges' decision of not increasing the MBBS and PG medical courses fees, FRA chairperson and former Bombay HC Judge Vijay Lakhichand Achliya said that many of these colleges might be satisfied with the fees they charged in the previous year. Another official mentioned that some colleges in rural areas might not be hiking their fees as they may not attract students for a higher fee structure.
Apart from the medical colleges, so far, 115 colleges offering pharmacy courses and 16 Ayurveda colleges have also not sought any fee hike for this year.
