Chennai: S Vijaya*, a fourth-year MBBS student at a self-financing medical college in the city, went home crying recently after the college administration said she would not be allowed to sit for her fourth-year exams. When her father sought an explanation from the college, he was asked to pay the entire tuition fee for the fifth year, in addition to hostel, food, and miscellaneous fees in advance, for his daughter to write the exam. This despite the fact that they are exempt from such payments, as she studies under post-matric scholarship scheme (PMS) of central govt. Several similarly-placed parents, whose wards study in self-financing colleges under the scheme, have complained to the Director of Medical Education (DME), Dr R Suganthy Rajakumari. When contacted, Dr Suganthy told TOI that the complaint had been forwarded to the office of the chairman of the committee on fee fixation for self-financing professional colleges for redress.Parents and activists are furious. “The fee fixation committee’s role ends with fixing the fee for the colleges. They can take action only if the college collects extra fee. The responsibility to pull up the college in other matters rests with the DME. This violation has been happening for many years,” said M Bharathan, state organiser of Ambedkar Kalvi Nootrandu Iyakam, who helped collate and file the plaint.According to the PMS scheme, SC/ST students, whose parents earn less than or equal to 2.5 lakh/annum, are eligible to study without paying tuition fee for 4.5 years in self-financing colleges in MBBS/BDS courses. Any tuition fee collected by the colleges, as fixed by a fee fixation committee, will be reimbursed by the govt to the students’ accounts year on year. To prevent college management from collecting the fee in the last year of study, the fee fixation committee ordered that tuition fee should not be collected in the fifth year too as it is an internship period. A record of the minutes of the meeting of the committee, dated Aug 12, 2025, warns the colleges against collecting the fee.Pushed to their limits, parents are looking to sell their land and avail themselves of loans from local money-lenders to pay the fee. TOI reached out to three prominent colleges — Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Medical College (DSME), Madha Medical College and Research Institute, and Indira Medical College — mentioned by parents.Madha college denied the complaints and stated that no student under any circumstance was being barred from attending their exams. “We are conducting an internal review to ensure that no administrative misunderstandings exist regarding fee structures for these students,” the college said. A DSME management staff member said no information could be shared on record without consent of the legal team. Indira college did not respond.
