MBBS, BDS fees likely to be hiked

Hyderabad: Steep fee hike for MBBS and BDS courses is on the cards with private medical colleges in the state asking for the moon. The managements of private medical colleges have submitted fresh fee proposals to the state government seeking double the fees for merit and management quota seats from the coming academic year (2014-15).

The managements met medical education minister Kondru Murali and senior officials of the department to discuss the issue last week. The managements were informed that a meeting will be set up with CM N. Kiran Kumar Reddy soon to take a final call on fee revision.

Managements have sought a fee hike for merit quota seats from Rs 55,000 to Rs 1,10,000 and management quota seats from Rs 5.5 lakh to Rs 11 lakh per annum. Some managements have even gone to the extent of cancelling the existing system of differential fees for merit and management quota seats in a bid to devise uniform fees for all seats, ranging from Rs 12 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.

However, officials are averse to this proposal and said the government would instead consider fee increase for both merit and management quota seats. The managements pointed out that as per the SC directions there should  be no categories for seats and cross-subsidy in fee structure. Officials said they would take legal opinion before taking a call on their demand.

The managements also sought permission for conducting their own tests for admission to management quota seats.

“We want uniform fee for 100 per cent of the seats as is being followed in the case of engineering colleges as per SC directions,” said G. Bhaskar Rao, president, AP Private Medical Colleges Association.