Thiruvananthapuram: The fee regulatory committee headed by Justice Rajendra Babu has fixed the annual tuition fees for the four Christian medical colleges at R s4.85 lakh, except for NRI seats, for 2017-18. The fee for NRI seats is Rs 18 lakh. They are Kolencherry Medical College, Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thrissur, Jubilee Mission Medical Colege, Thrissur, and Pushpagiri Medical College, Thiruvalla. The admissions were held to their seats earlier with a tuition fee of Rs 5 lakh for 85 per cent seats and Rs 20 lakh for the 15 percent NRI seats. The committee also fixed Rs 5,60,000 per annum for 2018-19 after allowing 10 percent increase in the previous year’s tuition fee of Rs 4,85,000 for future developments.
The committee said in the order issued on Tuesday that as per section 11 (1) of the Kerala Medical Education (Regulation and control of admission to private medical educational institutions Act (Act 15 of 2017), the committee is empowered to fix the tuition fee in respect of all self-financing medical education institutions in the state. The order also said that the Kerala Christian Professional College Managements’ Federation, consisting of four medical colleges, including one dental college, had agreed with the state government on May 13, 2015 for seat- sharing and fee structure.
It was in respect of the member colleges during the academic years 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 for MBBS and BDS courses. Federation coordinator George Paul told Deccan Chronicle that the committee did not have the power to fix the fee for medical colleges as per the Supreme Court verdict. Its power was restricted to rectifying any anomalies in the fee fixed by the colleges after intimation. The power to fix the fee was, however, given to the committee by a law passed by the state government. The law has been challenged by the managements in the High Court as it was inconsistent with the Supreme Court verdict, Mr Paul said.
“How can the committee fix the same fees for all the four colleges which have different infrastructure?” he asked. It does not make much difference if the fee is Rs 5 lakh or Rs 4.85 lakh. However, there are problems regarding the fee for NRI quota. It was fixed earlier at Rs 20 lakh so that Rs 5 lakh from each student could be utilised to provide scholarship for financially backward students. Now the amount would have to be reduced to Rs 3 lakh from each NRI seat, Mr Paul said.
