Limited seats, high fee at private colleges force MBBS aspirants to go abroad

Tribune News Service

Karam Prakash

Patiala, March 23

Exorbitant tuition fee in private colleges and limited seats in government colleges are the reasons that force MBBS aspirants of the state to look for admission in other countries such as Ukraine.

Six of the 10 medical colleges in the state are private. These have the bigger chunk of the seats. Of 1,475 MBBS seats in the state, 775 are in private colleges while 700 are in four government medical colleges. The MBBS course fee of the private colleges, excluding hostel and other charges, is around Rs 50 lakh per student.

Stiff competition

1,475 MBBS seats in state

775 in private colleges

700 in 4 govt colleges

10K qualified for admissions in 2021

Rs 50L MBBS course fee

Besides tuition fee, some private institutes charge 15 per cent of the total fee as registration fee and around Rs 1.75 lakh a year as administrative charges. In all, one has to spend above Rs 70 lakh to study medicine in Punjab.

Around 14,847 MBBS aspirants from the state had appeared for the NEET UG 2021, a common entrance test for MBBS admission. Of the total, over 10,000 qualified for the admission to 1,475 MBBS seats in the state.

It has been learnt that some of the students who had better ranking chose to go abroad, in the face of unaffordable fees in the private colleges of Punjab. Fees of MBBS courses in many countries — China, Georgia, Belarus, Ukraine — are far less.

Dr Harish Kumar, professor, Punjabi University, said, “I had to send my son to Ukraine because I cannot afford the cost of an MBBS seat in the private institutes in the state.”

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