The Institute of Medicine (IoM) has instructed medical colleges affiliated to it to charge Rs 3.5 million if they are in Kathmandu Valley and Rs 3.85 million if they are they outside Valley for MBBS programme.

The IoM issued a public notice to this effect on Saturday. A letter from the Prime Minister’s Office on September 18 last year had asked the IoM to charge no more than Rs 3.5 million based on the recommendation committee of experts led Kedar Bhakta Mathema, former vice-chancellor of the Tribhuvan University. In its Health Profession Education Policy, the committee had recommended Rs 3.5 million as MBBS fee.

Similarly, the IoM has also set the fee for BDS programme at Rs 1.75 million. Of the nine medical colleges affiliated to the IoM, two run dental course. Apart from these, five medical colleges run both MBBS and BDS programmes.

Dr KP Singh, dean of the IoM, said the institute’s notice is line with the PMO’s instruction.

The IoM instruction comes at a time when Dr Govinda KC has been pressing for reducing fees for MBBS to Rs 3.5 million and for BDS to Rs 3.8 million.

Dr KC is on his 10th hunger strike demanding major reforms in the medical education sector, including changes in fee structure.

Dr Singh said students can pay the fee in three instalments—fifty percent should be paid during the admission while the remaining amount should be paid in two phases.

The fee for the MBBS remains the prime concern of students and parents who are forced to pay as much as Rs 6 million for the five-and-half-year course.

Medical colleges were encouraged to charge exorbitant fee after a panel formed to revise the medical education fee suggested they can charge up to Rs 6.8 million.

The calculation was based on the seats approved for a college by the Nepal Medical Council.

The government had formed the taskforce led by former member of the National Planning Commission Shiva Kumar Rai to review the fee structure, but it ran into controversy after it recommended “unnecessarily high fee structure”. The medical colleges affiliated to the IoM are Gandaki Medical College, Pokhara; Chitwan Medical College, Bharatpur; Janaki Medical College, Janakpur; Universal College of Medical Sciences, Bhairahawa; National Medical College, Birgunj; Nepal Army Institute of Health Sciences, Sano Bharyang; KIST Medical College, Imadol; MB Kedia Dental College, Birgunj and People’s Dental College, Naya Bazaar.