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PG medical seat pegged between Rs 50 lakh & Rs 1.5 crore

With Supreme Court making NEET optional, private colleges may up the 'donation' rates.

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If a saying goes that ‘a doctor is a prized catch’, it is with good reason.

Following the Supreme Court’s interim order making National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) optional, allowing universities and private colleges to admit students in post-graduate (PG) medical courses based on their own entrance tests, students fear that private institutes will further jack up their ‘donation’ rates.

An aspirant from Ahmedabad, Amish Pathak (name changed), told dna that to get admission in PG courses in dentistry, colleges in the past had demanded between Rs50 lakh and Rs60 lakh. Similarly, to get admission in PG medical courses, doctors have to pay a whopping Rs50 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore depending on the popularity and importance of the course. The rates are likely to go up further.

“We were desperately hoping that if private colleges had to compulsorily adhere to the admission process through NEET and ranking, the admission process might have been relatively transparent. I cannot take the stream what I’d really like to study, but choose on the basis of ‘donation’ my parents can afford,” rued Pathak.

In Ahmedabad, there are 450 seats in PG medical courses in government and self-financed colleges. There are three private medical colleges, deemed universities in the state. Another student, who has completed bachelor of dental surgery (BDS) course and has been trying to get admission in master’s for the last two years, said that an orthodontistry seat demands Rs60 lakh, the highest among dental courses. This is followed by Rs50 lakh for admission in oral and conservative dentistry.

“Radiology is considered the most popular and a money-minting branch. So, there have been incidences in the past where students have paid donation of Rs1.5 crore to get admission in private colleges. Seats in other branches like orthopaedic are pegged at Rs1.5 crore, surgery around Rs60 lakh, gynaecology Rs60 lakh to Rs75 lakh, while dermatology commands the lowest at Rs50 lakh,” said a source.

As private colleges have the liberty to decide their fee structure and admit students, the universities do not interfere in the proceedings.

According to former syndicate member of Gujarat University, Manish Doshi, the ‘selling’ of P-G seats is another example of how medical education is going beyond the reach of the middle class. “To stop such sale of P-G seats, the Gujarat government could at least form a monitoring committee that takes strict action against such practices in education,” said Doshi.

(Names of student have been changed to protect their identity)

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