Karnataka introduces 15% fee hike in PG dental and medical seats in private colleges

NEW DELHI, March 18: Studying in private medical college is going to be expensive in the coming academic session for candidates taking admission in government quota seats. Karnataka government, in its recent move, has decided to hike the fee for postgraduate courses in private colleges by 15%. The decision was taken by the medical education minister, E. Tukaram, who presided over the meeting attended by the representatives of all private universities. The new fee rates will be applicable from the coming academic session of the year 2019-20 for all institutional quota seat along with government quota seats. The hike is also applicable to minority institutions as well.

Education at an exorbitant price

Every candidate will have to spend as much as 5,81,900/- for clinical postgraduate courses instead of last year’s fee of 5,06,000/-. With the introduction of a 15 % hike, the fee structure will now range from Rs. 72,737/- to 5.81 lakh for government quota medical seats, while for institutional quota seats, from Rs 1.09 lakh to Rs 8.72 lakh. Dental degree and diploma seats will cost Rs 2.97 lakh for government quota and Rs 4.65 lakh for institutional quota seats. The decision has not been put for deliberation and negotiation on the pretext of imminent elections.

Infrastructure and Quality

M.R. Jayaram, president of the Karnataka Professional Colleges’ Foundation (KPCF), has reportedly supported the hike citing reasons of quality education and better infrastructure. Speaking to a national daily, Jayaram justified the move saying " If we have to provide good quality education which is par excellence, besides improving our infrastructure, we also need to invest heavily on research”.  Along with an increase in the medical and dental pg course fee, a 10 % hike has also been introduced for engineering courses in private colleges. Candidates taking admission to government quota seats and institutional quota will have to spend 10% more than before in private engineering colleges. Meanwhile, the fee to be paid for dental seats in government college remains unchanged.