The new government all set to be sworn in on Saturday, May 20, will face one of its first challenges in negotiating this academic year’s consensual agreement on seat sharing and fee for medical and dental courses. Given that the incoming Congress government has been elected on the plank of providing succour to people affected by price rise through various welfare schemes, this will be a challenge.
Coming on the back of breakdown of talks over proposed fee hike for these courses last academic year, Karnataka Private Medical and Dental Colleges Association is all set to play hardball demanding a fee hike this year. It has been four years since there has been a hike, they claim. Last year, they demanded a 15% fee hike, while the State government accepted a hike of 10% and the talks broke down.
“Since four years there has been no fee hike for medical courses in the State. During the COVID-19 period, we faced a lot of challenges. Introducing new courses, new medical equipment, new technology in the medical field and providing salaries and bearing expenses of other facilities has been a challenge. Unless we increase the medical course fee, we cannot sustain this. Therefore, we have decided to submit the proposal for fee hike, once a full fledged government is formed,” said Dr. M. R. Jayaram, Honorary Secretary, Karnataka Private Medical and Dental Colleges Association.
While earlier the seat sharing was at a 60:40 ratio between private colleges and the government, it has now been modified to 50:50, following an order by the National Medical Commission (NMC). This is also one of the reasons why they are seeking a fee hike, sources said.
Only 150 additional seats to be added this year
Meanwhile, the State will add only 150 new undergraduate medical and dental seats this year, as against 897 seats added last year.
The Directorate of Medical Education (DME), Government of Karnataka has submitted a proposal to the National Medical Commission (NMC) seeking permission to operationalise Chitradurga Institute of Medical Sciences (CIMS) from the 2023-24 academic year. The new college has a capacity of 150 seats.
“This year we have submitted a proposal for one additional government medical college. However, there are no proposals from private managements for either new colleges or additional seats. So, the State will add 150 seats this year,” said Dr. K. Ravi, Director, DME.
Among 67 medical colleges, there are 23 Government and 44 Private and Deemed-to-be Medical Universities have a total seat capacity of 11,042 for undergraduate medical and dental courses. To this, 150 seats will be added this year, taking the total number of seats to 11192.
Last year, NMC had approved three government medical colleges in Haveri, Yadgir and Chickmagalur districts with 150 seats each, apart from Siddaganga Medical College and Research Institute, in Tumkur with 150 seats. It also approved expansion of several existing colleges, adding a total of 897 seats last year.
