Students applying to private medical and dental colleges are sorely disappointed as they were hoping that there would be no increase in fees for the 2017-18 academic year.
The State government, on Thursday, decided to hike fees by 10% not only for this academic year but for two consecutive years. This means that for the next academic year (2018-19), incoming students will see 10% hike on the already increased fees. This will continue for the 2019-20 academic year, said Medical Education Minister Sharanprakash R. Patil. He said the changes will be applicable for seats under government and institutional quotas.
With this hike, the fees for medical education in a private college under government quota stands at ₹77,000 a year, while that for a seat under the institutional quota is ₹6.32 lakh.
Dr. Patil, however, said there would be no hike in fees for medical and dental seats in government colleges. For the coming academic year, fees for dental seats under government quota is ₹49,500 and for institutional quota ₹4.29 lakh.
The decision was taken after a meeting with private medical and dental college managements’ associations on Wednesday, and the government is likely to sign an agreement with private colleges in the next two days.
Last year too, the government hiked medical and dental fees in the range of 27.2% to 41.8%.
While private medical colleges will have to give 40% of their seats to students under the government quota, another 40% of the seats will fall under the institutional quota. The remaining 20% is for NRI students and the management quota, fees for which will be fixed by college managements. Similarly, minority colleges will have to give 25% of their seats for government quota students.
The Karnataka Religious and Linguistic Minority Professional Colleges’ Association, however, has not agreed to this hike as they are demanding a 25% increase in fees. Secretary of the association Shafi Ahmed said they would not part with government quota seats unless the government agrees for a 25% fee hike. Dental colleges too have not reached consensus on the same.
Several students’ organisations have decided to stage a protest soon after the government announces the fee hike. This year, fee in engineering college was not hiked.
