Kathmandu, October 18

Those pursuing medical education will have to fork out a few hundred thousand rupees more, as the Medical Education Commission has revised upward fee structure for fiscal 2019-20 by 4.4 per cent to 4.7 per cent.

As per the revised fee structure, a Nepali student pursuing MBBS inside Kathmandu valley will have to pay Rs 4.02 million in fees for a five-and-a-half-year course, up from Rs 3.85 million in the last fiscal. A student pursuing MBBS outside Kathmandu valley, on the other hand, will have to pay Rs 4.44 million in fees, as against Rs 4.24 million in the last fiscal.

The MEC has set fees for five-and-a-half-year Bachelor’s in Dental Surgery at Rs 2.02 million, up from Rs 1.93 million in the last fiscal year.

Hefty first instalment

• A third of fees should be paid in the first year and the remaining in annual instalments
• Those pursuing MBBS inside Kathmandu valley must pay Rs 1.34 million in first instalment
• Those pursuing MBBS outside the valley have to pay Rs 1.48 million in first instalment
• BDS students should pay Rs 673,194 in firstinstalment

Free comparison

Institutes

Revised fee

Old fee

MBBS Inside Kathmandu Valley

Rs 4.02m

Rs 3.85m

MBBS Outside Kathmandu Valley

Rs 4.44m

Rs 4.24m

Bachelor’s in Dental Surgery

Rs 2.02m

Rs 1.93m

These revisions were made by MEC’s meetings held on September 18 and October 17. The meetings referred to the central bank’s inflation data of the last fiscal to make the revisions, according to a statement issued today.

The MEC has said the fees set for this fiscal will cover admission, teaching and learning, laboratory usage, community training and examination costs.

Students have to pay a third of the fees in the first year and the remaining in annual instalments, says the MEC. As per the revised fee structure, those pursuing MBBS inside the valley must pay Rs 1.34 million in first instalment, while those pursuing MBBS outside the valley have to deposit at least Rs 1.48 million in first instalment. BDS students should pay Rs 673,194 in first instalment.

Any university or college that collects more fee than stipulated by the MEC will face legal consequences, MEC has said. This statement comes at a time when medical students have been protesting against medical colleges’ practice of collecting extra fees on various pretexts. But universities and colleges can set the tuition fees for foreign students on their own as per the Medical Education Act.

The National Medical Education Act allows the MEC to set medical education fees, grant or revoke affiliation of medical colleges across the country and regulate the medical education sector.

The MEC sets fees based on parameters such as investment made by colleges and universities, overhead cost of colleges and universities, inflation, geographic location, quality of education, condition of hospitals, free medical services provided by colleges and universities and scholarships offered by colleges and universities.

“This time, we have revised the fees solely on the basis of inflation data, as we did not have time to look into other parameters because the academic year has already started,” said MEC Vice-chair Shree Krishna Giri. “We will form a taskforce comprising an expert to allocate medical seats for colleges and set tuition fees for fiscal 2020-21.”