Islamabad: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council has announced plans to set a standardised tuition fee structure for private medical and dental colleges to curb rising education costs and address public concerns.
"We're working to implement a tuition fee cap for private medical and dental colleges in order to ease the financial burden on students and their families while upholding academic standards," said PMDC president Prof Dr Rizwan Taj as representatives from private medical and dental colleges, education experts, lawyers and chartered accountants met here to analyse fee justifications, assess the feasibility of rationalising the fee structure and develop a structured and equitable fee policy. The discussions were centred on finding ways to prevent excessive tuition hikes while maintaining the highest academic standards in medical and dental colleges, with participants stressing the need for striking a balance between affordability for students and financial sustainability for educational institutions.
The PMDC president said the standardisation effort was a crucial step toward eliminating arbitrary fee increases and ensuring transparency across private colleges. "Final proposals will be presented to the Medical Education Committee led Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar for approval," he said. During the meeting, various proposals were presented and thoroughly reviewed. However, the initial recommendations from private institutions did not meet public expectations.
After extensive discussions, the PMDC's representatives and stakeholders agreed to revise tuition fees, ensuring they remain within reasonable limits while letting colleges maintain high educational standards. The key points discussed included auditing the operational costs of medical and dental colleges, such as faculty salaries, infrastructure maintenance, lab expenses and administrative costs. The participants also explored strategies for ensuring a reasonable profit margin for colleges to ensure sustainability without overcharging students.
The PMDC's representatives emphasised the significance of setting a maximum tuition fee for private medical and dental institutions and instructed them to display their fees on their websites and in admission brochures for transparency. The participants also discussed establishing an oversight body to ensure adherence to the standardised fee structure, along with enforcing penalties for institutions that overcharge students. They also proposed that colleges offer scholarships and instalment-based payment plans to support students from low-income families in the future.