MBBS fee spike irks families

Private medical education has become unaffordable for middle-income families as government seats are limited

KARACHI:

In Pakistan, nearly all parents hope that at least one of their children gets to flaunt the highly revered, “Dr.” title of a doctor. However, as the medical education sector becomes increasingly reliant on costly private institutions, it appears that the white coat will now be reserved for those born with a golden spoon in their mouth.

In 2019, the total tuition fees for the five-year Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree was fixed at Rs5 million. Although private medical colleges implemented this policy for two years, now they are charging Rs10 million to Rs15 million as fees for the same degree. As a result of the increase in fees, students and their parents are facing severe financial difficulties since they also have to bear the additional cost of Rs2 million on books, clothing, transportation and daily expenses during the five-year academic period.

Beenish, a pre-medical student, shared her experience of taking admission at a private medical school after she could not qualify for a government college. “In addition to the first-year fee of Rs2.2 million, I was asked to deposit additional money in the name of donation, for which no receipt was given. If we use the college’s transportation, then Rs100,000 is collected annually as travel charges. Similarly, a monthly fee of Rs50,000 is sought for living in the girls’ hostel. Our parents are suffering from severe mental stress because of the huge sum of money required for our education,” said Beenish.

Ali Murtaza, a second-year medical student at a private medical college confirmed that exorbitant fees were being collected from students at private institutions even though their faculty was incomplete. “Private medical colleges have a monopoly in the city and are charging arbitrary fees. As a result, medical education has become so expensive that the children of low to middle-income parents cannot afford to become doctors,” exclaimed Murtaza.

Muhammad Zia Iqbal, former Dean of Basic Sciences at Dow University and former Professor at the Sindh Medical College, confirmed that private medical education had become a commercial industry in the country since the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) had failed to formulate any uniform policy regarding their fees. "Hence, the annual fee of private colleges has increased by 200 per cent," claimed Iqbal.

On the other hand, the PMDC has maintained complete silence on the extraordinary, unannounced and arbitrary increase in tuition fees by private medical and dental colleges. From 2019 to 2021, the annual tuition fee for MBBS was fixed at Rs1 million. However, after the dissolution of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), the Pakistan Medical Council (PMC) divided medical colleges across the country into A, B and C categories, after which these colleges started deciding their own fee.

Some medical colleges are charging an additional fee of 10 to 20 per cent every year. An international medical college in Karachi is charging a five-year fee of 90,000 US dollars, hence proving that the PMDC has become practically inactive. This is aggravated by the fact that limited seats are allocated for medical education in government medical and dental colleges.

A total of 2,450 seats are allocated for MBBS in government medical colleges in Sindh. The number of government medical colleges across Sindh including Karachi is 12 while the number of government dental colleges is seven and the number of government medical universities is six.

The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council has issued a public notice on January 8, 2025, directing private medical and dental colleges to not collect fees for the academic session of 2024-25 until the Medical Education Committee established by the Prime Minister under the chairmanship of the Deputy Prime Minister takes a decision regarding the review of tuition fees.