Medical candidates rue lack of transparency in total fees
Chennai: One question the state medical selection committee consistently fails to answer accurately concerns the total fees charged by self-financing medical colleges and private universities for govt and management quota MBBS seats.
While the fee committee prescribes tuition, most colleges add development charges, transportation, insurance, library, hostel, books, and stationery fees, inflating the total by up to 12 lakh.
Officials in directorate of medical education clarify that the 'tuition fee' set by fee fixation committee excludes charges for hostel, library, or mess. A senior official stated, "We collect tuition fee and transfer it to the college.
Colleges are allowed to collect a nominal fee for hostel or transport. We don't want to display the entire fee, or it will look like it's approved by the govt," he said.
This practice has sparked outrage among parents and student counsellors, who demand complete fee transparency during the choice-blocking phase. "The committee asks me to make smart choices during the admission process. How will I lock choices when I don't know the fee college will ask?" said S R Ramani, whose nephew awaits admission in 2025.
"My friends paid almost double the prescribed fees in the prospectus. Why can't the govt make it mandatory for all colleges to declare the fee?" he said.
In 2024, after allotting a govt quota seat in a self-financing medical college affiliated with the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University, the state selection committee collected 4.35 lakh for the first-year MBBS tuition fee. However, when parents visited the college for other formalities, they were asked to pay an additional 3.61 lakh towards various other fees.
Another college, with a prescribed tuition fee of 4.45 lakh, demanded additional 4.15 lakh.
Copies of these receipts are available with TOI.
The fees charged by private medical universities can increase by up to 8 lakh. Student counsellor Manickavel Arumugam stated, "The govt must say the fee for a govt seat is anywhere between 6 lakh to 12 lakh a year instead of saying the tuition fee is between 4.35 lakh to 5.4 lakh." For the management quota, an additional fee can push the total annual fee from the prescribed 13.5 lakh in self-financing colleges to up to 20 lakh, and from 16.4 lakh in private universities to up to 23 lakh.
Officials from self-financing medical colleges said they display fees transparently at the first opportunity. A dean of a self-financing medical college in Chennai said, "We give breakup to parents when they bring allotment orders. Parents have used them to get education loans from banks." He added, "Non-minority colleges share up to 65% of their seats, but the fee is the same for minority and non-minority institutions. How can we run the institution with such low revenue?"
At least three self-financing colleges have applied for deemed university status to gain autonomy in deciding their fee structure. Deemed universities charged up to 30 lakh a year for MBBS in 2024.
TN health secretary P Senthilkumar said state would consider displaying full fee breakdown on the govt portal during counselling this year.
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