P.A. Mohammed

KOCHI: The Fee Regulatory Committee, headed by former judge P. A. Mohammed, has fixed a maximum annual tuition fee of Rs.1.38 lakh for private medical colleges in the State for the new academic year. The minimum fee structure proposed by the committee is Rs.1.30 lakh.

A sitting of the committee held here on Thursday announced the fee structure for 10 private medical colleges in the State. The fee structure for Dr. Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College at Karakonam, near Thiruvananthapuram, is Rs.1.38 lakh while the fee proposed for Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thrissur, is Rs.1.31 lakh.

Private medical colleges that could collect Rs.1.30 lakh fee include Jubilee Medical Mission, Thrissur; Karuna Medical College, Palakkad; MES Medical College, Perinthalmanna; Sree Gokulam Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram; Kannur Medical College; Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Medical College, Kolencherry; Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences, Thiruvalla, and SUT Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram.

The fee regulatory committee observed that the annual tuition fee for eight private medical colleges could not be fixed above Rs.1.13 lakh going by the documents submitted by the managements. But the committee decided to fix the Rs.1.30 lakh fee structure for these colleges for the new academic year in view of various factors, including inflation and fee structure prevalent in private medical colleges in other States.

The committee members pointed out that the private medical managements had asked for a fee structure ranging from Rs.3 lakh to Rs.6 lakh a year. But the managements could not produce documents to support their claim.

The committee also found that the managements had not given substantial evidence related to the revenue and expenditure incurred every year. The new fee structure was proposed on the basis of the resource gap found based on the documents submitted by the managements.

The committee rejected the claims made by the managements to include the interest incurred on capital investments made while setting up the medical colleges.

The demand for including the expenditure incurred for development of allied institutions of the medical colleges and staff welfare fund was also rejected.

The committee had considered the recommendations given by the Medical Council of India before finalising the new fee structure.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail