In a meeting held with all the stakeholders, it was confirmed that there will be no hike in fee for the BDS course this academic year.

In all possibility, the  fee charged for the four year course will be rolled over to five years and no extra fee will be charged.

Talking about the course fee, Dr S Vasanth Kumar, Registrar, RGUHS, said, “The Dental Council of India has recommended that it is advisable to roll over the fee for the five year course. However, the fixing of fee is yet to be decided by the State government and hence the initiative is taken by the stakeholders, namely the university and the dental colleges”.

Students’ interest

“In students’ interest, the dental colleges have decided not to increase the fee for the BDS course. However, letters will be dispatched to principals of dental colleges for their official response and the decision about fixing fee will be decided in two weeks’ time. The fee for management quota of BDS will remain Rs 2.3 lakh as per the MoU signed by the private managements and the government,” explained Dr S Vasanth Kumar.

Internship necessary

However, professors in most dental colleges are not satisfied with the scrapping of the one year internship. They said that internship is an absolute necessity.

On terms of anonymity, professors from Government Dental College, said that hands-on-training is required for  BDS students.

“The content learned by students during the four years will be put to practice during the internship. Now making all the five years as an academic year sans the internship will not be helpful to the students,” said a professor.
Another professor pointed out that, “It is essential that BDS students have a year of internship, as it will help them to deal with the case studies. The students should apply the theory and methods learnt in treatment of patients. Now, the teachers are left with no option but to incorporate these practicals in the regular teaching hours of the course.”