The Admission Committee for Professional Undergraduate and Postgraduate Medical Educational Courses, also known as ACPUGMEC and ACPPGMEC, made a surprising decision on Tuesday to reverse their earlier plan of increasing fees for undergraduate medical courses in 13 medical colleges operated by the Gujarat Medical Education and Research Society (GMERS) in the state. The government has now reinstated the previous fee structure.
In July, the state government announced a revised fee structure for government quota, management quota, and NRI quota seats. The annual fee for government quota seats was increased by 66.66%, from Rs 3.30 lakh per year to Rs 5.50 lakh. The management quota fee went up by 88.88% from Rs 9 lakh per year to Rs 17 lakh. For NRI quota students, the annual fee increased by 13.63% from $22,000 to $25,000.
However, on Tuesday, the committee announced the withdrawal of the fee hike and the reinstatement of the previous fee structure. This sudden change resulted in the cancellation of admissions for around 6,000 students who had already been allotted seats in the initial round of admissions. The committee will now have to conduct the admission process again, and an updated schedule is expected to be released soon.
GMERS operates 13 medical colleges in the state, offering a total of 2,100 medical seats. According to regulations, 75% of the seats are reserved for the state quota, 10% for the management quota, and the remaining 15% for the NRI quota. Across all GMERS medical colleges, there are 1,500 state quota seats, 210 management quota seats, and 315 NRI quota seats. Any unoccupied NRI quota seats are converted into management quota seats.
The initial announcement of the fee hike faced immediate opposition from student unions, such as the All-India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO), Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and the National Students Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress party. These groups protested vehemently and demanded a repeal of the fee hike.
