Thiruvananthapuarm: The tuition fee for NRI seats in private self-financing medical colleges have been announced.
According to the Justice R Rajendrababu Committee order, for the academic year 2017-18, the fee will be Rs 20 lakh in 17 medical colleges, while the four Christian medical colleges can charge Rs 18 lakh. For the academic year 2018-19, the fees for all the self-financing medical colleges will be Rs 20 lakh.
The medical colleges will have to set aside Rs 5 lakh from every NRI seat for the fund set up to support poor students who have got admission on merit. Though NRI parents and others had challenged this provision, the committee rejected their complaints.
Since there is an agreement between the Kerala Christian Professional College Managements Federation and the state government, the tuition fees for Amala, Jubilee, Pushpagiri and Kolenchery medical colleges had been fixed at Rs 18 lakh for the 2017-18 academic year in October last year. Since there is a case against this order by the committee, the fees in these colleges will be subject to the high court's final verdict.
The committee has announced the tuition fees for NRI seats for self-financing medical colleges that had already fixed their regular tuition fees. The fees for NRI seats in Pariyaram Cooperative Medical College were not considered by the committee because it is yet to decide the tuition fee. As per law, the committee can only propose uniform fees in merit seats at Pariyaram Cooperative Medical College. This raises concern if students can be admitted on lower fees.
The Justice Rajendrababu committee order has also spelt out how to utilize the funds for BPL students. Rs 5 lakh should be transferred to a special fund when the NRI fees are collected. The management won't have rights to distribute this amount.
The government, based on the norms set by the government, the supervisory committee and the court, will distribute the scholarships. When requested, the amount set aside from the NRI fees have to be transferred to the government, which will find the deserving students and distribute the amount.
Now, the committee will decide the fees for MBBS course at a new private medical college and Pariyaram Medical College, after which it will set the fees for medical PG courses and dental degree courses.