Punjab Study

LAHORE:05 September: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council has directed that all private medical and dental institutions in all provinces shall advertise for admission of students only after the determination of final order of merit by the respective provincial testing/admission authorities or by Oct 31, 2012, whichever is earlier.

A press release issued on Tuesday said the council had directed that the private colleges would not conduct their own entrance test and form final merit by utilising the provincial/government/NTS test result in their province/territory, however they may conduct the aptitude test and interview as per council rules.

“This has been a huge public demand and will go a long way in alleviating the complaint of students that the private colleges hold their entry tests before the public colleges have finalised and thus there is financial burden on students,” the PMDC said.

It said all admissions for both public and private colleges would be completed by Nov 30 each year and lists of admitted students would be submitted to the council for their registration by PM&DC. The students admitted after due date would not be registered by PM&DC. Those not registered with PM&DC shall not be considered medical or dental students.

In case of any over-admission and violation by the college of annual seat allocation, penal action shall be initiated by the council against the admitting authorities which may include de-recognition of the college, stopping next year admission or reduction in next-year admission. A repeat offender college will be de-recognised and legal recourse shall be taken against the admitting authorities.

Keeping in view the rate of inflation which has risen more than 25 per cent in the last three years, the council has allowed a 20 per cent increase in its fee structure. The fee shall be charged annually on year-to-year basis only and at the beginning of each year. There shall be no extra tuition fee for supplementary examination and students repeating the year shall be charged 25 per cent less for one year only and after that full yearly fee shall be charged.

No medical or dental institution training for MBBS/BDS in the private sector shall charge tuition fee more than Rs600,000 per annum per student. This fee shall exclude university examination fee, taxes, hostel fee, transport fee and the one-time admission fee which shall not be more than Rs50,000 only. Copies of all receipts shall be submitted to PM&DC.

The fee for foreign admissions in private or public colleges can be on foreign currency and shall not exceed more than $18,000 per annum all inclusive and not even one dollar over this will be charged on any pretext.

The council has said any other monetary demand or any other charge/donation on any pretext other than the annual fee as laid down in these regulations or any other non-compliance of these regulations, if reported, shall be construed a major violation and shall make the institution liable for action under section 22 of the PM&DC Ordinance,1962.

The council has decided that for full registration as a medical/dental practitioner, the house job/internship/foundation year shall have to do a structured house job. All persons graduating in or after December 2012 shall have to qualify an exit assessment examination of house job/internship/foundation year by the concerned university. Core competencies for this examination shall be as specified by the council and the university shall assess the student accordingly. If the concerned university shows inability to conduct the examination then the training institution must hold a comprehensive exit assessment examination. No conversion of provisional registration into full registration shall be done without this requirement.Dawn.