Angry parents and frustrated students clashed with police in Bombay this month after private medical schools tripled tuition, forcing the government to suspend the admissions process for the third time in as many months.
The protests began after hundreds of students and their families arrived in the city to register for medical school. Most were shocked when they learned that annual tuition had jumped to $7,500 -- far beyond the means of most Indians. With no way to raise the money, some students were in tears.
To help ease the financial burden, the Bombay High Court had ruled a few days earlier that students could pay 60 percent of the proposed fees when they registered. They would have to pay the remainder when the tuition increase was approved by a government committee, a requirement recently laid down by India’s Supreme Court in a case involving private professional colleges.
The announcement failed to mollify parents and students who said they had already borrowed heavily.
Waiting for the Courts
For a week, the families of the students remained outside the central admissions office at St. George’s Hospital, which is run by the Maharashtra state government. Many had come great distances to Bombay, also known as Mumbai, solely to register their children. Those with limited travel money were forced to sleep on railway-station platforms while they waited to see if there would be any relief from the courts.
In an effort to calm the growing protests, groups of private medical colleges said they would appoint a committee to review the fees. Parents were outraged when it was revealed that the panel was composed of three government ministers who own, and thereby profit from, private professional colleges.
The protests grew when the families were joined by local political parties and youth groups. Demonstrators blocked the entrance to St. George’s Hospital as well as the entrance to Bombay University. Police used batons to break up the protests.
Soon after, the Bombay High Court gave the state permission to suspend admissions for one week while state officials and private-college administrators met to see if they could resolve the tuition crisis.
Medical admissions have been in disarray as the Bombay court and India’s Supreme Court try to grapple with the problem of “profiteering” by private professional colleges that have sprung up in India. Last month the Supreme Court ruled that the private colleges could no longer demand one-time, upfront fees from students. But in a concession to the colleges, the court allowed them to set their own tuitions. In response, tuition for the 50 percent of seats that the government says must be allocated on a merit basis -- which are intended for needy and middle-class students -- jumped from about $2,500 to $7,500 per year.
http://chronicle.com Section: International Volume 50, Issue 5, Page A54