KATHMANDU, Dec 1: The Nepal Army Institute of Health Science (NAIHS) has decided to "readjust" the extra fees it charged MBBS students as per an agreement reached between the government and representatives of various private medical colleges.  

A decision to that effect was taken during a meeting of NAIHS Board of Directors held on Friday, Nepal Army has said.

The NA-owned NAIHS is among a dozen of medical colleges to exploit students by charging extra fees. The college was found to have taken Rs 800,000 more than what was prescribed by the government. Earlier this month, the institute had dominated media headlines after some agitating students alleged receiving threats from hospital management for speaking out against the exploitation. 

“A decision has been taken to readjust to refund extra fees charged in the academic year 2018-19, 2019-20 as per a letter received from the Tribhuvan University Institute of Medicice on 27 November, 2019,” NAIHS said in a statement issued on Friday. 

On Tuesday, the government and representatives of medical colleges had signed a two-point understanding to return or readjust undue fees charged to MBBS and BDS students.

NA has said that it was committed to stick to the fees schedule fixed by the government for enrolling students in the new batch. 

The agitating students have refused to own up the agreement, describing it as a ploy to end their protest. The students have particularly objected to lack of a clear deadline to implement the agreement and its failure to address similar grievances of students from other streams like nursing, BPH, Pharmacy and BMLT.  

They have also objected to a clause in the agreement that says that the students from older batch, notably 2016-17, 2017-18 batches,  will be reimbursed based on the finding and recommendation of a to-be formed panel under the Medical Education Commission (MEC). 

The medical colleges including NAIHS have been charging up to Rs 5.5 million from each student for the five years course. As per government rules, colleges inside the Kathmandu Valley can not charge a medical student more than Rs 3.85 million those colleges outside the Valley Rs 4.245 million. A report of the National Vigilance Center (NVC) had found that around a dozen colleges had collected at least Rs 3 billion from students in the last academic session.

 
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