Wednesday, August 14, 2019

With slump in demand, many private dental colleges slash fee
Dwindling job opportunities are said to be the cause


14/08/2019, TANU KULKARNI,BENGALURU

It is not just engineering colleges that are struggling to fill their seats. In view of poor demand, private dental colleges too have slashed their fee, with some charging only a half of what they are allowed to charge.

For the 2019-20 academic year, private dental colleges are allowed to charge ₹72,484 and ₹5.32 lakh annually for government and institutional quota seats, respectively. While all colleges are charging the full rate for government quota seats, many have changed the fee for institutional quota seats, which is now anywhere between ₹2.78 lakh and ₹4 lakh a year. Many of top dental colleges in Bengaluru are willing charge ₹5.32 lakh.

Over the last three to four years, NRI and management quota seats — categorised as ‘other’ — have also seen a decline in demand. This year, the fee is in the range of ₹2.78 lakh to ₹9.28 lakh.

Dental college managements point out that this is because of dwindling job opportunities in this sector. “Today, the number of dentists required is not very high,” the principal of a Bengaluru-based private dental college said.

According to the principal, the managements of many dental colleges did not want the fee hiked for 2019-20. However, the government increased the fee by 15% as their respective associations fought for it. “The top dental colleges that make up for 10% of the colleges will get their seats filled as students will be willing to pay for these seats. But the remaining colleges will have no takers. So colleges are willingly reducing the fee,” the principal said.

Several dental colleges deployed agents to help them fill seats after the introduction of NEET. “With this, students from across the country can choose colleges in the State. For the most part, agents have been promised up to 30% of the annual fee if they are able to pursue students to take their management and NRI quota seats when the seats are surrendered to the colleges after the mop-up round,” a senior professor said.

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