Proposal for increase in fees of medical colleges rejected: PMDC

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) president on Wednesday said that the fee structure for medical and dental colleges will remain unchanged as the proposal of increase in fees has been refused.

According to an official of PMDC, after taking notice of the private medical colleges’ decision to increase their fees, the council had decided to cancel the recommendation regarding fee hike.

The PMDC president said that per admission policy 2016, the fee of medical and dental colleges would remain fixed at Rs 6,42,000.

He said that earlier private medical and dental colleges had submitted a proposal to increase fees of medical and dental colleges up to Rs 13,00,000. However, the council had moved their recommendation to the Ministry of National Health Services by suggesting increase in fee to Rs 8,00,000.

The president said that later the council had reviewed the proposal of the medical and dental colleges and decided not to go ahead with the fee hike.

He further said that the council had seriously taken up matter regarding admitting the students in medical and dental colleges prior to the time frame announced by the council.

He said that the council had decided that no medical and dental college would be allowed to work in violation of the law, and the council would not tolerate any violation of the rules and regulations of PMDC.

The PMDC president also said that a majority of private medical and dental colleges had advertised admission dates in the newspapers and had admitted students before October 31 before the completion of the admission process of public medical and dental colleges, which was a clear violation of laid down rules.

He said that the PMDC had always tried to safeguard the interest of all the public and private institutions, while adding any institution that violated the rules and criteria of PMDC would be dealt with strictly.

Moreover, the official said that the PMDC was the supreme regulatory body for medical and dental education in the country, adding that any advertisement published from any unauthorised group or individual would be ignored.

He advised all students, their parents and institutions to strictly follow the centralised provincial or regional admission/entry test policy, as described in SRO and followed in the decisions made by the council.

The president cautioned that any admission granted against these regulations would be considered as violation of PMDC rules and would not be registered by any affiliating university and PMDC.

He also said that the institutions that violated the rules would be penalised, adding that the tuition fee would be the same as mentioned in the rules and regulations.