Karnataka's private medical colleges, too, want fee hike

Following the footsteps of private engineering colleges, private medical colleges have demanded a hike in the fees of under graduate medical course seats obtained through CET 2013.

“The hike during CET 2012 was very nominal and it is really difficult to run colleges with the existing fees. So, we will also demand fees hike for medical courses,” said a senior member of Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK), on condition of anonymity.

However, medical and dental college managements are yet to decided the percentage of increase. “We need to discuss the issue in our consortium meeting before discussing it with the government,” said a COMEDK member, who also owns a medical institution in the city.

According to Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) officials, it is difficult for the state government to act on the demand placed by college managements. “Even during CET 2012, the government had increased the fees for all the professional courses and it is not possible this time,” said a senior official from KEA on condition of anonymity.

The state government’s decision to increase the fees for professional courses in 2012, was made three years after the demand was initially made.

During CET 2012, the government accepted the demand of private professional college managements and increased the fee for medical, engineering and dental courses.
For engineering courses, the government fixed a fee of `36,900 and for medical and dental courses, the fee was fixed at `38,500 and ` 27,500 per annum respectively, for government quota seats.

This fee structure is inapplicable to management and COMED-K seats.