Exorbitant fees in private medical colleges denies access to medical education for less privileged: Economic Survey

Economic Survey 2024-25 highlights challenges in medical education fees, seat availability, quality, and doctor migration trends.

Skyrocketing fees for undergraduate medical education remains a considerable challenge that denies the opportunity to make the MBBS degree accessible and affordable for students from less privileged backgrounds, states the Economic Survey 2024-25.

Since financial year 2018-19, the number of medical colleges grew from 499 to 648 in FY 2023 to 780 in FY 2025, during which time the MBBS seats increased from 70,012 to 96,077 in FY 2023 to 1,18,137 in FY 2025 and post-graduate seats increased from 39,583 to 64,059 in FY 2023 to 73,157 in FY 2025.

Despite the National Medical Commission (NMC) issuing guidelines for determination of fees and all other charges in respect of 50% of seats in private medical institutions and deemed to be universities, fees remain high ranging from ₹60 lakh to ₹1 crore or even more in the private sector, which holds 48% of MBBS seats, the survey notes.

The number of candidates aspiring to study MBBS has increased consistently over the years, from around 16 lakh in 2019 to around 24 lakh in 2024.

“The consequence is that every year thousands of students go abroad especially those with lower fees such as China, Russia, Ukraine, Philippines, Bangladesh,” the survey further states.

These aspirants invest multiple years in repeated attempts at exams — the NEET-UG before taking admission, the Foreign Medical Graduates (FMG) Exam on completing the course and then complete compulsory internships of 12 months in India. “FMGs in China (during COVID lockdowns) and Ukraine (as the conflict escalated), had to return to India dropping their education and faced uncertain prospects,” the survey states.

The very low pass percentage of FMGs in the qualifying exam for practising in India (16.65% of 2,02,385 students) indicates sub-par quality of medical education abroad including lack of clinical training. “As policy intervention to dissuade medical education abroad is crafted, keeping costs is India within reasonable limits is essential,” the survey points out.