The Gujarat Medical and Education Research Society (GMERS) has increased the MBBS annual tuition fee for its 13 colleges to Rs 5.50 lakh from the extant Rs 3.50 lakh. With a one-time 57.14 per cent fee hike, an MBBS student will now have to shell out a hefty Rs 24.75 lakh for the total duration of the course, which was earlier coming around Rs 15 lakh.
There are only six medical colleges in Gujarat where the fees are cheap. Not a single government college has opened since 1995. GMERS, established by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has started 13 medical colleges since 2011 with 2,100 seats.
On the other hand, there are 26 (3,955 seats) in neighboring state Rajasthan, 15 (2,400 seats) in Madhya Pradesh and 32 (5,125 seats) in Maharashtra, which are directly managed by the government. The annual tuition fee of MBBS in these states is between Rs 63,000 and around Rs 1.5 lakh. The entire cost of MBBS in these states will be recovered by GMERS in Gujarat in just one year. Not only the neighboring states, there are also many universities in countries like Belarus, China, which teach this course for the same fee without NEET. This fee increase is a burden on the middle class and poor families of Gujarat, whose children are dreaming of getting admission in medical after getting a good rank in NEET.
There are total 40 medical colleges in Gujarat offering a combined 7,150 seats. There are 4,250 MBBS seats in 23 government colleges, including 50 seats of Rajkot AIIMS. There are 17 private colleges, which have 2,900 seats. Apart from Rajkot AIIMS there are three types of government colleges, six owned by the state government, 13 under GMERS, while Ahmedabad Municipality has two colleges and Surat Municipality has one. The fees at the six government colleges start from as low as Rs 25,000. They have 1,400 seats and includes central quota seats as well. GMERS has 2,100 seats in its 13 colleges out of which 1,500 are state quota. Its fee has been increased from to Rs 5.50 lakh. The annual fee of corporation colleges is already Rs 6 lakh to 7 lakh. Apart from this, accommodation, meals and other fees will also have to be paid, which will also cost another few lakhs. For this reason, studying medicine in Gujarat will break the back of middle-class families.
GMERS says there has been an increase in colleges and seats under the society. The cost of running these colleges has reached Rs 750 crore, in which infrastructure facilities also have to be increased from time to time. Of the 1,785 students who took admission last year, 1,485 students have also received assistance under various schemes.
But it is also a fact that the land for establishment of GMERS colleges is provided by the state government, the building of the colleges is constructed and the grant is given by the Central government for the same. The fee structure of other such colleges in the state is fixed by the FRC, while the fees of GMERS colleges are fixed by the Gujarat government.
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