College wants MBBS students to pay Rs 15L per year, moves court

CHENNAI: It is a riddle — while running a private medical college is a loss-making venture for the owners, the MBBS course fee is prohibitively expensive for students, it seems.

Seven months after the statutory fee-fixation committee stipulated 2.5 lakh as annual fee for MBBS courses for 2014-15, a private medical college has challenged validity of the fee in the Madras high court, saying unless students pay at least 15 lakh every year, medical colleges cannot develop and offer world class medical education.

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam issued notice to additional government pleader P Sanjai Gandhi, asking him to furnish relevant details within two weeks.

The bench, however, did not stay the fee structure laid down for the next three academic years by the Committee on Fixation of Fee in Respect of Self-Financing Professional Colleges.

Velammal Medical College Hospital and Research Institute in Madurai, in its petition, said it built a 28 lakh sqft structure near Madurai airport at a total cost of 608 crore. It at present has 2,100 beds, hostels, library, mortuary and modern facilities. The college said while the annual expenditure is about 72.7 crore, income from the hospital and college is about 28 crore. "The shortfall per annum is about 44.78 crore," it said, assailing the fee structure permitted by the state-appointed committee.

Noting that income from tuition fee would be 10.26 crore if the committee's prescription were to be followed, the management said it had submitted necessary documents and expenditure statements to justify determination of 15 lakh per student per year as annual fee. The format conceived by the committee does not take into account all relevant expenditure towards establishment, maintenance and further development of the college, it said, adding that the committee had fixed a uniform fee structure for all 12 self-financing medical colleges and 18 dental colleges.

Determining fee for all medical and dental colleges on a generalized basis is flawed, the college said, adding that individual expenditures, inflation and further development should have been considered by the committee while dealing with the issue of annual fee. It would be detrimental to the interest and welfare of students if such an attitude is adopted, college chairman M V Muthuramalingam said in his affidavit. "Fixation of high and separate fee structure for Velammal college is highly essential not only to enable the institution to maintain its quality of education, but also in the interest and welfare of the student studying in the institution," the affidavit said.