The National Medial Commission (NMC), the country's apex medical education regulatory body, has issued new guidelines to determine fees for seats in private medical institutions.
As per the fresh directives, the NMC has mandated that fees of 50% seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities should be at par with the fee in government medical colleges in that particular state. Even though it is not clear when will the direction come to effect, it will have to be effected for both the MBBS and PG courses.
'It has been decided that the fee of the 50 per cent seats in the private medical college and deemed universities should be at par with the fee in the Government Medical College of that particular state and Union Territory,' the NMC said in a statement.
'The benefit of this fee structure would be first made available to those candidates who have availed government quota seats, but limited to the extent of 50 per cent of total sanctioned strength of the respective medical college/ deemed university,' said the medical body.
'However, if the government quota seats are less than 50 per cent of the total sanctioned seats, the remaining candidates would avail benefit of fee equivalent to the government medical college fees, based purely on the merit,' the NMC statement added.
The Commission's decision comes after the approval of revised draft guidelines of an Expert Committee, reconstituted in October 2021, for determination of fees for MBBS and PG courses and other charges in respect of private medical colleges and deemed to be varsities.
A total of 1800 responses from General Public/Medical Institutions/Associations were received by the Commission based upon which the recommendations were revised, said the NMC in its statement.