Becoming a doctor has been a childhood dream for Harsh Goel, 21, a fourth-year MBBS student and Ukraine returnee, but studying medicine in India is a costly affair. He is now contemplating returning to the war-torn country to secure his future. “I couldn’t afford to study MBBS from a private institute, and getting into a government college was tough. So, my parents invested Rs 20 lakh from their personal finances to help me achieve my dream,” Harsh said.
Another professional, Dr. Ishita Yasmin, who is also a student currently pursuing MD in Physiology, said that she completed her MBBS from abroad due to the hefty amount of money required to study medicine in India. “The possibility of getting admission through NEET amid the high competition here was meagre. Therefore, I decided to study outside India,” she added. However, Yamin said she didn’t have to worry about the education loan as it was taken care of by her parents, who are doctors themselves.
Experts believe that even though opting for educational loans helps students monetarily to pursue higher education, it has its own challenges.
Cost of studying MBBS in India
The approximate cost of medical education in India can go up to Rs one crore in several private universities, making it highly unaffordable. This, clubbed with fewer seats available in Indian medical colleges, pushes students abroad to pursue studies in countries where the cost is relatively cheaper.
However, in a written reply to the Parliament on Monday, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya informed that in order to make medical education affordable in the country, the government has put a cap on 50% of seats in private and deemed to be universities, under the National Medical Commission Act, 2019. The government has further increased the number of medical seats in India to help students, he said.
“There is an increase of 69% in Medical Colleges from 387 before 2014 to 655 as of now. Further, there is an increase of 95% in MBBS seats from 51,348 before 2014 to 1,00,163 as of now and an increase of 110% in PG seats from 31,185 before 2014 to 65,335 as of now,” the Minister said.
Mandaviya also added that the government runs several centrally sponsored schemes to establish new medical universities and upgrade the existing ones to boost the number of seats. Of the 157 approved new medical colleges, 94 have already been established, and undergraduate courses in 19 newly set up AIIMs have also been started, he said.
The burden of loan
Getting an education loan is considered to be another tough task for study-abroad aspirants. Even though the process has been eased out by the entry of several new lenders aiming to attract consumers, a private bank’s interest rate can cost as high as 15% of the lending. This adds to the pressure of repayment, experts believe. In the case of public banks, the process of availing the loan remains a challenge, they added.
According to data provided by the Ministry of Finance in the Parliament, a total of Rs 31,142 crore educational loan has been disbursed by various banks to students for the purpose of studying abroad in the last 10 years. In 2021-22, loans worth Rs 7,576 crore were laid out for students opting to study abroad. Of this, Rs 289.82 crore was disbursed to students for studying medicine, data showed.
The data further showed that around 4.61 lakh students availed educational loans from Public Sector Banks (PSBs) for studying abroad in the last ten years. However, just 42,364 students availed education loans for studying medicine, it added.