Thiruvananthapuram: The fee structure fixed by the government following the agreement reached with the Kerala Christian Professional College Management Association (KCPCMA) will be applicable to all self-financing medical colleges in the state.
According to the government order issued on May 15, the committee has fixed the tuition fee for the PG medical courses for 2017-18 as follows: PG degree (clinical) - Rs 14 lakh, PG degree (non-clinical) Rs 8.5 lakh, PG diploma (clinical ) - Rs 10.5 lakh , super-speciality Rs 18.5 lakh and NRI - Rs 35 lakh.
A student will now have to shell out Rs 14 lakh for PG degree (clinical) and '8.5 lakh for PG (non-clinical) courses for the academic year 2017-18 even for government quota seats.
The order states: "Government is pleased to accept the above fee structure fixed by the highest number of candi...committee which is provisional and applicable to all self-financing medical colleges."
Compared to last year, the hike in fee is more than double. In 2016-17 the fee was as follows: Government seats PG degree (clinical) - Rs 6.5 lakh and PG degree (non- clinical) - Rs 2.6 lakh.
The state government’s decision to charge equal fee for management and government quota seats has drawn flak from various organisations. The health minister’s argument that the fee had been hiked to pay stipend to the PGs has also come under severe criticism.
A section of doctors said that if the government continued to raise the fee in government quota seats at this rate, gradually all medical PG seats would be taken over by the self-financing colleges. Of the total 4,050 MBBS seats, at present 2,850 seats are in self- financing college sector. Similarly, of the 1,411 PG medical seats, 504 are with the self- financing colleges.
