Dhaka University suspends private medical college form submission over extra fees

Dhaka University has postponed online form submission for professional exams of eight private medical colleges affiliated with it over allegations they were charging students up to nearly eight times the fee.

The authorities in a notice on Jan 25 asked the MBBS students to fill out the forms and submit the fees for the first professional examination of the session from May to November 2020, now to be held between Feb 22 and Mar 7 this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The exam fees were fixed at Tk 1,200 per subject while for the tabulation sheets, the fee is Tk 450. Irregular candidates are supposed to pay an additional amount of Tk 750 as retention fee.

But some of the medical colleges were charging the students up to Tk 8,000 in place of Tk 1,200.

When bdnews24.com contacted Bahalul Haque Chowdhury, controller of exams at the university, for his comments on the issue on Thursday evening, he said he would take steps.

“You write about it. I will suspend form submission,” he said.

Hours later, the university made an announcement suspending the form submission for the exams of Shahabuddin Medical College of Gulshan, Kumudini Women's Medical College, Bangladesh Medical College, Delta Medical College, East West Medical College, Care Medical College, Uttara Modern Medical College and US-Bangla Medical College.

Among them, Uttara Modern and US-Bangla were charging the students extra for the third professional exams and the others for the first professional exams.

Shahabuddin Medical College, which is collecting fees for the submission between Jan 27 and Feb 10, were charging students Tk 8,000 for a single subject while the amount is doubled for two subjects and triple for three subjects. The irregular students are supposed to pay an additional amount of Tk 2,000 per subject.

The students submitted an application asking the college to cut the fees on Jan 27. They also met Principal Md Jafarullah to pursue their case.

One of the students, who paid Tk 16,500 for two subjects, said the principal told them: “The cost of food is very high in Gulshan. So the external examiners demand more money.”   

Jafarullah asked the reporter to call him later when bdnews24.com called him for his comment on the allegation.

Kumudini college was charging Tk 1,200 for each subject and Tk 450 for tabulation sheets, but on top of a centre fee of Tk 3,530, application form charge of Tk 120 and another Tk 300 for dean's office fee. A regular student has to pay Tk 8,000 for three subjects.

The fee for each subject at Uttara Modern was Tk 3,800 while the amount is Tk 5,000 for two subjects and Tk 6,000 for three subjects.

Bangladesh Medical College authorities had set the deadline for fee submission on Feb 3. It charged the examinees Tk 4,500 for a single subject while the fee  was Tk 5,500 for two subjects and Tk 6,500 for three subjects.

Delta took Tk 10,000 for three subjects from the regular students while the irregular students paid an additional Tk 7,500 for one subject. The fee was Tk 9,500 for two subjects and Tk 11,500 for three subjects.

East West was charging an additional Tk 6,000 as centre fee, but its Principal Professor Zaforullah Chowdhury claimed they were not charging more than the fee.

At Care, the students were paying Tk 7,000 for a subject where the amount is Tk 9,000 for two subjects and Tk 11,000 for three subjects.

US-Bangla was charging the students Tk 3,400 for a subject, Tk 7500 for two subjects and the amount is Tk 8,500 for three subjects in the third professional examinations.

A student claimed the fees were higher for first professional exams at the college.

For the third professional exams, Uttara Modern was charging the students Tk 3,800 for one subject, Tk 5,000 for two subjects and Tk 6,200 for three subjects.

Dhaka University asked the students to contact their colleges in case of emergency.

The number of public and private medical colleges affiliated to the university is 53.