Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has recommended the state fee Regulating Authority (FRA) to let private Ayurveda, Homeopathy and Unani colleges charge five times the regular fees for institute quota seats. Presently, these institutes can have up to three and four times the regular fees for undergraduate (UG) annd post-graduation (PG) courses, respectively.
The proposal came after a delegation from the Association of Management of Ayurvedic Colleges of Maharashtra met with the state Medical Education Minister on September 2 and requested the fee hike to help them meet their expenses. The regulator, however, is yet to decide on the issue.
In its letter to FRA, the state Medical Education Department said that they don't have any objections to the demands made by the colleges. "The Association said that they were finding it difficult to manage their expenses due to the existing fee limits. Since, FRA is the body with powers to make the amends, we sent them the recommendation," said Dinesh Waghmare, principal secretary at the department.
The proposal comes in the wake of a recent decision by FRA to fix an upper limit to the refundable deposit and caution money charged by the state's private health science institutes, including those offering Ayurveda, Homeopathy and Unani programmes. The authority has already determined the maximum chargeable tuition fees for these institutes for 2024-25, while their admission process is also underway.
The existing norms, which were notified by FRA in November 2023, allow a maximum of three times the regular fees from the students admitted under the institute of management quota and five times from Non-Resident Indian (NRI) quota candidates for various UG health science programmes, including MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BHMS and BUMS.
The allowance for PG programmes is four times and five times, for institute and NRI quotas respectively. While there's a 15% combined quota for the two categories in UG courses, as many as 35% and 15% PG seats are reserved for management and NRI candidates respectively.
However, medical education counsellors complain that many of the Ayurveda colleges have been demanding five times the fees from all UG candidates admitted under 15% management/NRI quota, including Indian residents. This is because, unlike PG programmes, there are no separate categories for the two reservations at UG level. "While FRA hasn't taken a decision on the matter, the colleges may now cite this letter from the government and demand five times the fees," said Akhsay Sable, a Pune-based counsellor.
FPJ couldn't reach Vijay Achliya, FRA chairman, for a comment on the recent development.
Back in 2019, when the regulator had first allowed medical colleges to charge higher fees for institute and NRI quotas, it had substantially slashed - by half, in some cases - the fees meant for those admitted on 50% regular seats. This is because FRA follows an expense-based model to calculate the fees. The excess income generated by the institutes through higher charges was used to cross-subsidise the regular fees.
Kuldeep Ambekar, a Pune-based student activist, said that if implemented, the proposal will further exacerbate the disparity in health science education. "On one hand, the government is making a show of providing free education, on the other the colleges are engaging in an unabated loot. Since, there are only a few seats in government run colleges, the students will have no option but to pay the demanded fees. This will result in more students opting for getting educated in foreign countries such as Ukraine and Russia," he said.
