Private Medical Colleges Failing Students Deliberately, charging additional fees for repeating semester: Parliamentary Panel
New Delhi: Some of the private medical colleges have been deliberately failing medical students during mid-semester exams and charging additional fees for repeating the semester or the exam, a Parliamentary panel recently observed in its report.
The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare further opined in its One Hundred Fifty-Seventh Report that the Undergraduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) of NMC may develop appropriate feasible modalities to monitor assessment, revaluation, etc. without charging any additional fee.
Chaired by Shri Bhubaneswar Kalita, the panel presented its report before the Parliament on 9th February 2024. Several issues related to medical education such as infrastructure, faculty issues, and quality control of medical education were discussed in the report.
The Committee was apprised of the fact that some private medical colleges seemingly fail medical graduates deliberately during mid-semester exams which results in repetition of the semester, and charging additional fees for repeating the semester or exam.
Referring to the issue, the Parliamentary Panel on Health observed that such a practice causes stress on the medical students - financial and otherwise.
Therefore, advising the Apex Medical Commission to set up proper feasible modalities to monitor assessment and evaluation process, the panel mentioned in its report, "The Committee therefore recommends that UGMEB may develop appropriate feasible modalities for monitoring assessment, revaluation, etc. without charging any additional fee."
The average MBBS course fees across Government colleges in India (both centrally funded, and State Government funded) can reach 50,000 per annum. However, such subsidized medical education can only be availed by a select few who perform exceedingly well in the NEET UG exam, noted the panel.
It further highlighted that as per the information furnished by the Union Health Ministry, there are only 56,193 Government seats in MBBS and as per NTA, more than 11 lakh candidates qualified for the NEET UG exam in 2023. Therefore, more than 10 lakh MBBS aspirants are left either to opt for MBBS seats in private medical colleges where the course fees can range up to 1.5 crores or to pursue their dream in countries like China, Ukraine, and Russia, where the cost is lower in comparison to private colleges in India.
NMC Fee Order:
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that back in 2022, the National Medical Commission issued a direction to all the private medical colleges in the country to charge fees at par with the government institutes for 50 per cent of the total seats.
Issuing an Office Memorandum in February 2022, NMC mentioned, "After extensive consultations, it has been decided that the fee of the 50 per cent seats in the private medical colleges and deemed universities should be at par with the fee in the government medical colleges of that particular State and UT. The benefit of this fee structure would be first made available to those candidates who have availed government quota seats, but are limited to the extent of 50 per cent of the total sanctioned strength of the respective medical college/deemed university."
"However, if the government quota seats are less than 50 per cent of total sanctioned seats, the remaining candidates would avail the benefit of a fee equivalent to the government medical college fees, based purely on the merit," the Commission had added.
The validity of the NMC order has time and again been challenged before various High Courts and also Supreme Court, where AHSI challenged the order arguing that the top court in various judgments had reiterated the fact that the method for fixing the fees, would be subject to considering various guidelines such as facilities available in the college, infrastructure, age of investment made, plans for expansion, etc.
Currently, the validity of the NMC fee order is being considered by the Supreme Court and all the connected matters in this regard has been listed for further hearing on 22nd March, 2024.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Panel has also recommended that NMC should undertake a comparative study of best practices of its parallel organisation in various countries. The Parliamentary Committee opined that if such a study is undertaken by NMC, it can help the Commission to usher in best practices followed around the world and help make NMC an institution par excellence.
Also Read: Flexner Model: Parliamentary Panel Advises NMC to Study International Best Practices
