Colleges challenge new MBBS fee structure

The new fee structure for MBBS in self-financing medical colleges fixed by the Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee for Medical Education for the academic year 2018-19 has been challenged in the Kerala High Court.

The committee had fixed the fee at ₹5,60,000 per student for the academic year after allowing an increase of 10% per annum over the previous year’s fee for future development expenditure and growth and making an increase of 5% per annum towards WPI (Wholesale Price Index).

The self-financing colleges that have challenged the new free structure included Believers Church Medical College, Kannur Medical College, and Sree Gokulam Medical College.

The petitioners pointed out that the committee did the exercise of regulating the fee by fixing a slab after rejecting the fee proposals of the colleges and deciding that the fee should not be over ₹5 lakh.

The committee should not have functioned in such a manner. In fact, the fee had been regularised on the basis of the fee fixed for the academic year 2016-17, instead of fixing the fee taking into account the income and expenditure of the colleges. There had, in fact, been only an increase of 15% over the previous year’s fee structure.

The colleges could not be run on a fee fixed at the whims and fancies of the members on the committee. The writ petitions may come up before the court on April 9.