Kathmandu, September 25
A group of private medical colleges to around the country has announced that it will not admit new students for the forthcoming academic session.
The announcement comes a few days after Tribhuvan University released the results for its entrance exams for MBBS and BDS degrees and asked medical colleges to start admissions. However, the Association of Medical and Dental College of Nepal announced that medical colleges will not admit new students this year.
The association’s president Basurudin Ansari stated that they had to resort to the action as the government didn’t act according to the recently passed Medical Education Act. The association also added that colleges were not happy at policy over the number of seats allocated to foreign students. Even though TU has already conducted an entrance exam for MBBS courses, other medical colleges haven’t.
Critics have been concerned about at the way medical colleges are operating in Nepal. Some are not happy that seats are being reserved for foreign students while many have been unhappy about medical colleges charging excess fees to students.
However, medical colleges have their own grievances. Most medical college operators have been saying that the government is trying to bully them. The association said that this new ploy was undermining the impact of medical colleges to Nepal’s economy and accused the government of trying to shut private colleges.
“The government does not consult stakeholders before bringing out polities and laws. This will not help the medical sector. It seems the government wants to shut most of us down,” said Ansari in the statement.
The association has also started to act on the offensive lately. On Tuesday, the association sent a letter to the Prime Minister along with Health Minister and chairman of National Medical Council. They sent keys along with the letter.
In the letter, they have written that the government was making hasty decisions which were making it tough on medical colleges to operate. They have warned of a stronger protest if their demands are not taken seriously.
