The government has formed a panel under former member of the National Planning Commission Shiva Kumar Rai to revise the fees for medical education.

The eight-member team will recommend the government the fees for MBBS, BDS and Nursing to maintain uniformity on the fee structure among colleges for the various programmes. A committee led by former Vice-chancellor of Tribhuvan University Kedar Bhakta Mathema in its report had suggested fixing the fee for the MBBS programme at Rs 3.5 million and BDS at Rs 2.2 million payable in two installments. The committee, however, has not fixed the fee for the nursing programme.

The Mathema committee’s recommendation was, however, left unimplemented as the medical colleges failed to comply with the structure saying the fees had been fixed without consulting with them. The Rai-led committee is likely to recommend the fees within two weeks. He said that the fees will be determined after consulting with all the stakeholders, including student unions, association of private medical colleges and parents.
He said the cost of the medical colleges, inflation and the profit for the colleges will be the main basis for determining the fees. Another committee formed under Rai four-years ago had fixed the fee of Rs2.8 million for MBBS programme and Rs1.7 million for BDS. But it was left unimplemented.

source:the kathmandu post,11 august 2016