Medical education to get dearer in Telangana

Hyderabad: It is going to be more burdensome for those who want to study medicine in private colleges in Telangana State as the State government has issued two Government Order allowing unaided non-minority medical and dental institutions to increase their tuition fee by up to 99 per cent.

The Department of Health has issued orders increasing the fee for several courses in some of the private medical colleges in the State. There are 23 private medical colleges in the State and of these, eight colleges are offer MBBS and BDS courses. The State Health Secretary has recently issued the orders, including GO 41 and GO 43, allowing the private colleges to increase the tuition fee from 72 per cent to 90 per cent.

According to sources in the Health department, the State government has taken this decision as per the recommendations of Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC). The increased fee will come into effect from the 2021-22 medical year. With the issuance of admission notice for admissions into B and C categories in private medical colleges in the State, it is learnt that the latest order in this regard has been issued accordingly.

However, the colleges have not increased the fee for those joining under various quotas. It has been around Rs 60,000 a year till now for them. This decision has been taken by the government after the private medical colleges have submitted their expense information to the TAFRC.

The private medical and dental colleges do not charge capitation fee as per the Medical Health department orders. Making extra collections in different forms will not be allowed by the government. It was clarified that the fee fixed for this year would be applicable to the students and they would be charged for the prescribed fee for four-and-a-half years.

However, this has caused a major concern for students who are willing to study in private medical colleges. They say that increased fee structure violates the court orders, as the court had directed the medical colleges to reinstate the old fee structure of 2016.

The colleges where the fee has been increased include Chalmeda Anand Rao Medical College in Karimnagar district, Kamineni Academy in LB Nagar, Kamineni Institute of Medical Sciences in Narketpally and MNR Medical College in Mahbubnagar.

In these colleges, the B category fee has been increased up to Rs 13 lakh. Other private colleges including Apollo, Mallareddy and SVS medical colleges have increased the B category fee up to Rs 12.50 lakh. In C category, the fee has increased to Rs 25 lakh per annum. The fee is Rs 5 lakh for MNR Dental College and Panania College.