In a relief to medical aspirants in the state, three colleges won’t hike their fees in the upcoming academic year 2024-25. The state’s Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) last month released the list of around 300 professional colleges that opted for the ‘no upward revision’ option, indicating that they would be charging the same tuition fees as the current academic year. The list includes some of the prominent health science, engineering, management and pharmacy institutes in the city.
Stable Fees at Leading Medical Colleges In Maharashtra
Among the colleges that decided to not seek any changes in fees is Kashibai Navale Medical College in Pune, which is one of the costliest in the state. Last year, it was allowed to charge Rs14.23 lakh, up from the previous year’s Rs13.91 lakh, for the MBBS course. However, this year it has opted for ‘no upward revision’ for both MBBS and post-graduation MD/MS programmes, which cost Rs12.94 lakh.
Similarly, Ashwini Rural Medical College in Solapur will also continue to charge the same fees – Rs9.86 lakh for MBBS and Rs11.81 lakh for MD/MS. The Postgraduate Institute of Swasthiyog Pratishthan, Miraj, has sought no revision in its MD/MS fees of Rs9.5 lakh.
Stable Fees at Dental and Engineering Colleges In Maharashtra
Four dental colleges – Yogita Dental College at Ratnagiri, Maharashtra Institute of Dental Science and Research at Lature, SMBT Dental College at Ahmednagar and KBH Dental College at Nashik – will also continue with the existing fees for both undergraduate and post-graduate programmes. These courses cost anywhere between Rs3 lakh and Rs6.55 lakh per annum.
Among technical institutes, 61 engineering colleges figure in the list of no upward category for Bachelor of Engineering (BE) course, while 27 sought no change in fees for their Master of Engineering (ME) programmes. These include DJ Sanghvi College, Vile Parle (Rs2.2 lakh for BE, Rs1.48 lakh for ME), Don Bosco Institute of Technology, Kurla (Rs1.45 lakh for BE) and Xavier Institute of Engineering, Mahim (Rs1.56 lakh for BE).
There won’t be any fee change for MBA programmes at as many as 45 B-schools in the state. These include city institutes like Xavier Institute of Management and Research, Fort (Rs2.78 lakh), Durgadevi Saraf Institute of Management, Malad (Rs2.11 lakh) and Allana Institute of Management, Fort (Rs1.12 lakh.
Stable Tuition Fees for BPharm Courses Amid Growing College Numbers
The highest number of no-revisions are for Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) courses, with 78 Pharma colleges figuring in the list released by FRA. This comes in the backdrop of the rapid growth in the number of pharmacy colleges in the city – 57 of 453 degree pharma colleges in the state were added in the last year alone – resulting in almost one-thirds of BPharm seats without any takers.
Dr Bhanuben Nanavati College of Pharmacy, Vile Parle and Oriental College of Pharmacy, Sanpada, are among the colleges that decided to continue with their existing tuition fees for both undergraduate (Rs2.01 lakh and Rs1.42 lakh, respectively) and PG programmes (Rs1.59 lakh and Rs1.62 lakh, respectively).
