Kathmandu: Guardians Concerned Committee (GCC) today demanded that the college administration and government adjust the fee for third batch MBBS students at KIST Medical College .

At a press meet here in Kathmandu, they said that a committee formed by the government to determine fee structure at medical colleges had fixed Rs 2.5 million to complete the five-year MBBS course, while medical colleges were charging around Rs 4 million.

Kiran Sharma, coordinator, GCC said, “Some medical colleges are being operated by people from the UCPN-Maoist, who for long had advocated free education, but the same people are charging exorbitant fee from poor and hapless people.”

Sharma said, “We have heard that the government formed committee has recommended that colleges charge only Rs 2.5 million from MBBS students in three installments.” He further said that instead of following government rules and regulations, medical colleges were involved in financial irregularities.

“Various medical colleges and their share holders were making more than Rs 2 billion profit from MBBS students every year by ignoring the government’s recommendation and charging fees arbitrarily,” he added.

He also sought strong government monitoring of those colleges for effective implementation of government rules and regulations to establish rule of law in the country.The hospital administration could not be contacted for clarification.

Meanwhile, two reports that recommended scientific fee structure for nursing and medical colleges are gathering dust in the Cabinet, while hapless students are forced to cough up more fee to study MBBS and nursing courses.

According to Education Ministry, one report has recommended Rs 396,000 fee for nursing courses and another submitted to the Cabinet has recommended Rs 3.146 million fee for MBBS course in three installments.

source: The Himalayan Times, 27 Nov 2011