MBBS, BDS fees to go up by 15%

Making undergraduate medical (MBBS) and dental (BDS) courses even more expensive, the state government on Thursday agreed to increase the fee by 15% against the previous year's fee structure.

Following the government’s decision, medical seat aspirants have to shell out Rs 1,11,959 per year against the previous Rs 97,350 for admission under government category quota in private colleges. Aspirants of dental courses have to pay Rs 72,484 per year against last year’s Rs 63,030.

Alongside the hike in fee structure for government quota seats, the state has agreed to hike fee for institutional quota seats by 15%. As per the latest decision, the fee for institutional quota medical seats has gone up from Rs 6,83,100 to Rs 7,85,565. The same for dental courses is Rs 5,32,818 from Rs 4,63,320.

The government resolved to hike the fee structure at a meeting held by the Medical Education department with the representatives of various private medical colleges, linguistic and religious minority institutions and deemed-to-be and private medical universities on Thursday in Bengaluru.

Defending the hike in fee structure, E Tukaram, Medical Education Minister, said, “Private medical and dental colleges had petitioned to the government about their problems.”

“They raised issues including the hike in salaries of employees as per the 6th pay commission, the rising cost of medical equipment and sprucing up of infrastructure. Considering these difficulties faced by the colleges, we have agreed to hike the fee by 15%,” he said.

Private medical and dental colleges were demanding a whopping 25% hike in fee. M R Jayaram, chairperson of the Karnataka Professional Colleges Foundation, said, “We had asked the government for 25% hike. But the government agreed to increase it by 15%. As the admission process needs to commence in the next four days and in the interest of students, we did not want to drag it further and agreed for 15% hike.”

However, the cost of medical and dental course in government colleges will remain the same at Rs 50,000 and Rs 40,000 per year respectively.

The decision by the state government has left the students and parents a worried lot. “This is an anti-student move by the government. If I don’t get a seat in a government college, should I drop my dream of pursuing a medical course,” questioned a medical seat aspirant from Chikkamagaluru.

Similarly, a parent from Chitradurga responded, “I feel the government yielded to the colleges as they are largely run by political leaders or their relatives. This would only benefit them and it serves no purpose especially for those hailing from poor and middle-class background.”

Several student organisations too have expressed their dissent. Harsha Narayana, state secretary, Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), said, “The government has given in to intense lobbying by private medical colleges. As the seats in government colleges are only a few, the poor and middle class cannot even think of securing admission in private colleges. We will stage a statewide protest against the fee hike.”

Tentative seats

The minister said tentatively there are 7,645 medical seats and 2,800 dental seats in 51 medical and 35 dental colleges across the State respectively (including private colleges). He also said that the Medical Council of India had sanctioned a new medical college - Bowring and Lady Curzon Medical College and Research Institute this year. He said that the sanctioned intake for this college was 150 seats.