Seeking to introduce a quota for Non-Resident Indians (NRI) in government medical colleges in the State, Karnataka has urged the Centre to allow a 15 % quota by sanctioning 508 supernumerary seats in these colleges.
The supernumerary MBBS seats sought by the State are in 22 government autonomous medical colleges under the Department of Medial Education from the academic year 2025-26.
An annual fee of ₹25 lakh per student can be fixed which would generate ₹127 crore for the Medical Education Department for the first year and ₹571.5 crore from the fifth year.
The 22 government medical colleges under the Department of Medical Education have an intake of 3,450 seats for 2023-24 of which 85% or 2,929 seats was Karnataka quota and 521 seats or 15% all-India quota.
In a letter to the chairman of the National Medical Commission, Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil said that supernumerary was nothing but creating additional seats over and above the annual sanctioned intake of UG-MBBS seats within the government medical colleges.
Justifying the proposal to have NRI quota in government medical colleges, Dr. Patil pointed to UGC guidelines for admission and supernumerary seats for international students in UG and PG programmes, and in National Education Policy 2020 that emphasised intake of international students in Indian higher educational institutions for global outreach.
The Minister also cited the example of Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Puducherry where the quota for NRI students in government medical colleges was between 7% and 15% and students were charged over $75,000 to $1,00,000 for a five-year course.
“In Karnataka, only private medical colleges are allowed to take NRI students who pay between ₹ 1 crore and ₹ 2.5 crore.”
Incidentally, government veterinary, agriculture and horticulture universities in Karnataka have 15% NRI quota and these are above the sanctioned intake and higher fees collected help these universities provide better facilities and quality education.
Dr. Patil said that the autonomous medical institutions in the State faced shortage of funds. “In order to make these institutions centres of excellence, additional funds are necessary for quality education, training, maintenance, purchase of medical equipment, drugs, handling patient load, improving infrastructure, faculty strength and research.”
Expressing confidence that the Centre would approve NRI quota by sanctioning supernumerary seats from 2025-2026, he said: “Creating NRI quota within the available annual intake of seats is not feasible. It disturbs the existing intake by creating fewer number of seats for the poor and underprivileged that could trigger protests from students and parents.”
Published - June 30, 2024 08:35 pm IST
