The rate of donations for postgraduate and under-graduate seats in medical colleges in Karnataka has gone up by over 50 per cent in professional colleges due to a reduction in the number of payment quota seats.

The State government recently made free and paid seats into a ratio of 50:50 in professional colleges, following a Supreme Court directive.

Donation for a postgraduate medical seat now ranges from Rs. 25 lakh to Rs. 32 lakh, while for an under graduate seat it is between Rs. 5 lakh and Rs. 7 lakh. College managements say that donations have gone up, as they have to make good the loss of fee resulting from the reduction of paid quota seats.

Though the fee structure for free and payment quota seats is regulated by the government, the fee charged for paid seats is six times higher than that of the free seats. Since the number of payment seats have been reduced there is tremendous pressure on the management to make good the loss of fee by increasing the donations on NRI (non-resident Indians)/discretionary quota seats which constitute 15 percent of the total number of seats in a college.

Though the donation has gone up, it has not deterred students from queuing up for admissions at medical colleges. One of the prestigious medical colleges in the State has received applications 25 times the number of available PG seats. In one of the oldest private medical colleges, students are known to have paid Rs. 7 lakh for an undergraduate course. While students are ready to pay Rs. 20-30 lakh donation for a medical seat, in the discipline they want. The management has also justified in seeking higher donations for higher education which was not considered unethical these days.

"We have to collect higher donations because we need to meet the expenses of running a hospital, maintaining a library and laboratory along with other infrastructure expenses. We can provide quality education to all students only with the donation collected from the students of the discretionary quota," said a chairman of a prestigious medical college on condition of anonymity.

According to educational entrepreneurs, it is no longer profitable to run a medical college. It takes nearly Rs. 3 crore to set up a medical college and if we don't recover the money in three years, it is not a feasible proposition. With the current matrix of 50 per cent free seats and 50 per cent payment seats, it is hardly possible to recover the investment forget earning profits, he added.

Another medical educationalist said when higher education was privatised in the State in the late seventies, there were very few medical colleges in the neighbouring states and many students came to Karnataka for medical education. But, now Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and even Kerala have started several medical colleges. As a result of which Karnataka no longer enjoys a monopoly status in medical education and private medical colleges are finding it extremely difficult to generate profits.

Private managements in medical colleges are now pinning their hopes on an upward revision of fee structure by the Medical Council of India (MCI) to make good the loss of revenues. Some are also awaiting the WTO (world Trade Organisation) guidelines, which will be in force from 2004, as they would have allow the setting up private universities, informed reliable sources from the medical education department, government of Karnataka.

Officials of the medical education department however informed that the colleges raising a hue and cry over the reduction payment seats have all made sufficient profits. Any investment in a college is earned back in two or three years. These managements are making an issue because their profits are being cut, an official said.

When Pharmbiz.com contacted Dr. A B Malakaraddy, minister for medical education, government of Karnataka, said that though some managements had pleaded difficulty in running medical colleges under the present matrix, the State was helpless as the matrix was framed following a Supreme Court directive.