Almost 75% of total seats in the country would be
available at reasonable fees
Dr KK Aggarwal
There is a concern that medical education will become
expensive with the formation of NMC. Here, the government has tried to allay
this concern as below. According to the government, almost 75% of total seats
in the country would be available at reasonable fees.
“Clause 10(1) (i): Fee regulation
“IMC Act, 1956 has no provision for regulation of fees. As
a result, some states regulate the fees of some seats in private colleges
through MoUs signed with college managements. In addition, the Supreme Court
has set up committees chaired by retired High Court Judges to fix fees in
private colleges as an interim measure. Deemed to be Universities claim that
they are not covered by these committees.
Nearly 50% of the total MBBS seats in the country are in
government colleges, which have nominal fees. Of the remaining seats, 50% would
be regulated by NMC. This means that almost 75% of total seats in the
country would be available at reasonable fees. In the spirit of
federalism, the State governments would still have the liberty to decide fees
for remaining seats in private medical colleges on the basis of individual MOUs
signed with colleges on the basis of mutual agreement.
States also have been providing scholarships on the basis
of merit cum means and would normally continue to do so in order to make
medical education affordable to all students. We need to balance the interests
of the poor but meritorious students and the promoters of the private medical
colleges in order to expand the number of seats on offer. It is not correct to
assume that colleges would be free to arbitrarily raise the fees for unregulated
seats. The transparency provided by NEXT results would lead to regulation of
fees through market forces. Colleges would have to provide quality of education
commensurate to the fees charged by them, otherwise there would be no takers
for their management quota seats.
Rating would be provided by MARB for medical institutions
based on the standard of education/training. This will serve to regulate
fee through market forces.
Any affirmative action has to meet the test of
reasonability. India has a large middle class population. The government of the
day is duty bound to create infrastructure for all segments of society.
While we solicit private investment in the medical
education sector and want private medical colleges to be financially viable,
this government has not shied away from its responsibility to create more seats
in the government sector. We have invested more than Rs 10,000 crores in
creating government seats in the past five years, and are also setting up 21
new AIIMS at a cost of over Rs 30,000 crores to boost the medical education
sector. This trend of creating government seats will continue in future.
There is no question of NMC Bill making medical education
a preserve of the rich. On the contrary, it is common knowledge that before the
reforms of NEET and common counseling were introduced by our government, rich
students who could afford to pay huge and unrecorded capitation fees were able
to secure admission to private medical colleges. Our reforms have eliminated
the role of black money in medical education and the NMC Bill will provide
statutory force to the reforms which have been carried out.
Another bogey which is being raised is that merit will be
given a go by in the proposed dispensation. Nothing could be further from the
truth. The earlier provision was that any student who obtains 50% marks at
class 12 level could gain admission to MBBS courses. Colleges negotiated with
students and conducted their own admission tests in a totally non-transparent
manner. As a result, many undeserving students got admission. Now only NEET
qualified students can get admission, which ensures that merit prevails in
admissions.”
Dr KK Aggarwal
Padma Shri Awardee
President Elect Confederation of
Medical Associations in Asia and Oceania
(CMAAO)
Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications
President Heart Care Foundation of
India
Past National President
IMA
