KOCHI: The authorities have heard the pleas of parents and students for regulating deemed universities. The Union government is bringing the fee in 50 per cent medical seats in them under regulation.
The Centre on Wednesday decided to bring in an amendment to the National Medical Commission Bill in this regard. The proposed amendment states that “the maximum limit of 40 per cent seats for which fee would be regulated in private medical institutions and deemed universities has been increased to 50 per cent.”
However, the Union Cabinet has not proposed any admission supervisory and fee regulatory committees at the national level, and and it has come as a dampener. Such a committee would have been able to make the entire admission process for the UG and PG medical courses transparent in 100 per cent seats. Currently, the fees for the medical PG and UG are prohibitively high. “It is certainly a welcome decision,” said Dr S. Rajookrishnan, Kerala’s former joint commissioner of entrance examinations.
“This can be considered as the first step towards a fee regulatory committee at the national level, which should regulate the fee in the remaining 50 per cent seats as well.”
Raghav Chandran, a parent from Kozhikode, also hailed it as a good decision in favour of meritorious students. “The fee for the remaining 50 per cent seats also needs to be regulated. Otherwise, the deemed universities will resort to profiteering by jacking up fees on them,” he said.
“A reasonable fee should be fixed at the national level. Moreover, the Union government needs to intervene urgently to bring down the high fee of Rs 20-50 lakh for PG medical seats this year.”
