Anand Mahindra, Chairman of the Mahindra Group, mulls setting up a medical college and asked Tech Mahindra MD and CEO, CP Gurnani, to explore its possibility.
“I had no idea that there was such a shortfall of medical colleges in India. CP Gurnani, could we explore the idea of establishing a medical studies institution on the campus of Mahindra University?” he tweeted on Thursday. It is being said that nearly 18,000 students had been undergoing medical courses in Ukraine.
India has around 605 medical colleges and nearly 91,000 seats between them. Data suggest over 16 lakh students take the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for MBBS every year. Apart from Ukraine, other countries where Indian students study medicine include China, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Phillipines, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Twitterati reacts
Mahindra’s tweet drew a variety of responses from social media users. While some spoke of the shortage of teachers as a cause, some others cautioned him against charging steep fees. The users also raised the issue of “reservations and donations” being problem areas in higher education in India.
“It will be more appreciated if you keep the fees of your medical college in line with these abroad countries or lower than that because many private players have colleges, but they charge ₹1-1.25 crore for the 5.5 year course,” a user responded. Mahindra incidentally acknowledged one such user’s tweet who suggested keeping fees in moderation.
Another user raised the issue of shortage of good schools in rural India. “Mr. Anand, there is also an acute shortage of good schools in rural India.. I have an idea of creating at least 200 such schools which are financially viable and sustainable to provide good quality education,” he wrote.