By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal has announced that medical colleges will be fined if they increase tuition fees without government approval.
The issue was discussed at a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Health Services, chaired by Dr Mahesh Kumar Malani.
Kamal said medical institutions could not increase fees at their own discretion. He said 61 medical colleges had applied for permission to raise their fees, but only 35 had qualified for an increase.
“Any medical college that has increased fees without permission will be fined,” he said.
The minister said Rs1.8 million was the approved baseline fee for medical colleges and that no institution had been allowed to charge Rs2.5 million. He added that colleges had not been permitted to charge more than around Rs1.85m to Rs1.9m.
Kamal said some private medical colleges had continued to struggle to fill their seats even after reducing their fees. He cited the example of students in Mirpurkhas, saying they were reluctant to pursue dentistry despite fees reaching Rs10m.
The health ministry had conducted a study to determine whether high fees were the main reason students were avoiding admissions, he said. The findings suggested that the issue was not limited to fees and that the quality of education and training also needed attention.
Kamal said inspections had been ordered at colleges where seats remained vacant. Institutions that failed to attract students and did not maintain acceptable standards could eventually be forced to close, he added.
He stressed that high fees were not the only reason medical college seats remained vacant and that the quality of education was an equally important factor.
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