With medical education getting more expensive, several medical and dental colleges are now demanding that students furnish a bank guarantee for not only the NRI quota and ‘other’ (formerly management quota) seats, but also for private MBBS seats.
This has not gone down well among students as many of them are unable to mobilise the funds and provide a bank guarantee. While government quota seat in private colleges is priced at ₹1.11 lakh, private seats in the same colleges are ₹7.85 lakh per annum. The cost of NRI quota and other seats ranges from anywhere between ₹25 lakh and ₹40 lakh per annum.
After paying the annual fee, the students have to produce a bank guarantee for the rest of the duration of the course, which in some cases could be as high as ₹1 crore, if not more.
The total duration of an MBBS course is 5.5 years and they will have to provide the bank guarantee for 3.5 years excluding the first year and internship period.
An MBBS student who secured a seat in the ‘other’ category and had completed the admission process for the 2019-2020 academic year said: “I have paid the fees by borrowing money from my relatives for this year but my parents are unable to provide a bank guarantee. The college is constantly pressurising me to provide a bank guarantee. Although I have told the college management that my fees will be paid on time every year, they refuse to listen.”
S. Kumar, executive secretary of Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK), said that this practice was within the legal framework.
“In the past, colleges did not demand bank guarantees as they did not benefit from it. But now with the increase in fees as well as the number of drop outs, college managements want to play it safe and take a bank guarantee so that they do not have to bear the cost if a student quits midway through the course” he said.
A vice-chancellor of a deemed university said that they that had no option but to resort to this measure. “Many students have been quitting midway after writing National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) again and want to get into better colleges. So to ensure that we are able to meet our expenses, we have taken this up as a precautionary measure,” he said.
A official in the medical education department said that it would be problematic if private colleges ask students to furnish bank guarantee for government quota seats. “If they lodge complaints regarding this, we will initiate action against such colleges,” he said. So far, however, the practice appears to be limited to the more expensive seats.
