Rationalising Fees for Private Medical and Dental Colleges will be discussed by the PMDC Committee.
To reexamine the matter of rationalising fees for private medical and dental colleges, a committee appointed by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) will meet this week. The PMDC has not been successful in this attempt, despite prior attempts.
Dr. Nadeem Jan, the former caretaker health minister, claimed that although he had started the process of rationalising fees during his tenure, the expected result had not materialised by the time of his departure.
A three-person team headed by Prof. Dr. Mohammad Zubair Khan is reportedly investigating the situation, according to a PMDC representative. The next meeting of the committee is set for Wednesday, May 8.
Note that for the current session that started in February, medical and dentistry institutes have increased their annual tuition by up to Rs. 800,000.
According to the former caretaker health minister, he made every effort to lower the costs. He told a national daily, “In actuality, the committee had finalised the fees at less than Rs. 2 million per annum but I rejected it and insisted on further reducing it.”
According to a senior PMDC official, the academic council recommended the fee amount, but the council finally decided against it and gave it orders to be reviewed. He said, “Unfortunately, the fees were raised on its own by the Pakistan Association of Private Medical and Dental Institutions (PAMI).
The spokesman went on to say that PAMI declined to lower the cost, citing increases in utility services and electrical rates. “We will press PAMI to lower the charge at the committee’s upcoming meeting, which is set for this coming Wednesday. But if PAMI declines to lower the costs, the PMDC Act does not provide us [PMDC] the authority to take any action,” he stated.
This year in January, PMDC asked institutions to provide an explanation for the sudden increase in tuition. The council also reminded schools of their duties, which include sending in annual financial statements for the year that ended and informing PMDC of any increases in tuition three months ahead of the start of the next term.
Official records state that Akhtar Saeed Medical and Dental College Lahore charged an annual MBBS tuition of almost Rs. 1.8 million. But the college has increased it to more than Rs. 2.6 million for the current term.
The tuition at HBS Medical and Dental College in Islamabad has gone up from Rs. 1.55 million to over Rs. 2.2 million this year. A cost of Rs. 1.6 million has been announced by Foundation University Medical College, which is a minor increase over the Rs. 1.58 million that Pakistani students paid for their education last year.
From Rs. 1.75 million to Rs. 2.2 million this year, the CMH Lahore Medical and Dental College and Institute of Dentistry Lahore (MBBS) has raised its tuition. The cost of Shalamar Medical and Dental College has increased from Rs. 1.65 million to Rs. 2.1 million this year. In a same vein, the tuition at Islamabad Medical and Dental College has increased to Rs. 2.1 million from Rs. 1.6 million.
The MBBS programme at Aga Khan University Karachi now costs more than Rs. 3 million per year instead of the previous year’s Rs. 2.6 million. There has been a rise in fees at Fazaia Medical College Islamabad from about Rs. 1.4 million to Rs. 1.6 million and at Rehman Medical College Peshawar from Rs. s1.5 million to Rs. 1.7 million.
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