Academic activities stalled at KMDC as teachers protest for salaries, students against fee hike

The Karachi Medical and Dental College (KMDC) has been in crisis as both its faculty members and students have resorted to protests due to their own reasons, which however stem from the financial crunch being faced by the educational institution.

The financial woes of the KMDC seem similar to its governing institution – the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC). Just like the KMC, the KMDC claims to have not enough funds to pay salaries to its employees that include the faculty members. The non-payment of salaries for several months has forced the teachers to resort to protests.

Meanwhile, as the institution tried to meet its expenses through raising the fee structure by as much as 50 per cent, it irked the students who decided to go for protest against the sudden increase in the fee.

As both the teachers and students are adamant that they will not call off their protests, the academic activities at the KMDC have been severely affected. There have been no academic activities at the college for the last few days due to the protests of the unpaid teachers.

Fee raise

Last week, it came as a complete surprise to the students when the college administration raised the annual fee by 50 per cent instead of 10 per cent.

According to a circular issued by the KMDC administration, the KMDC’s board of governors in its meeting held on May 8 had revised the tuition fee for the academic year 2020. The meeting decided that the new fee structure would be applied to all the students from January 1, 2020 onwards, the circular read.

It also stated that the board of governors had decided that the KMDC would maintain its admission policy strictly on the basis of merit, and around 10 per cent of the students either would receive scholarships or they would be able to study at the college free of charge.

The increase in the fee announced by the KMDC is going to affect those students the most who got admissions on the self-finance basis. The students say that in its prospectus, the KMDC had mentioned that only a 10 per cent annual increase in the fee structure would be applied to all the heads of fees, including the admission fee, library fee, sports fee, and others, however, last week, the college administration raised the fee structure by 50 per cent after creating the head of ‘tuition fee’ which was not even mentioned in the KMDC’s fee structure in the prospectus.

The students have been terming the 50 per cent increase in the fee an unjust decision. Many students of the self-finance programme say their parents now cannot afford their education as they are now supposed to pay Rs181,200 more than the earlier fee.

Last week, the students held a protest and demanded that the administration bring down the fee structure in accordance with the prospectus. The protesting students were of the view that such a sudden fee increase had endangered their future.

After the protest, the KMDC students were assured by the administration that their fee structure would be revised. However, no progress was made in this regard in the following days. On Wednesday, the students announced another protest on Thursday. They also warned the administration that they would approach court in case it did not resolve the issue. However, late on Wednesday night, someone claiming to be a representative of the KMDC administration contacted them on social media and asked them to call off the protest, promising that the administration would address their grievance.

Due to this, the protest was called off. However, it was revealed on Thursday that the students were asked to cancel the protest from someone using a fake account. The administration, though it denied contacting the students a day earlier, nevertheless, assured the students on Thursday that it would reconsider the fee hike, after which the students decided not to give any protest call for the time being.

Presently, around 1,500 students have been enrolled on the MBBS and BDS proragmmes on the self-finance basis at the KMDC. Each of them was supposed to pay around Rs400,000 annual fee as per the 2018 admission policy but after the fee hike, they now have to pay around Rs600,000 annually.

Teachers protest

In the meantime, faculty members and non-teaching staff of the KMDC have been protesting for the last 10 days as their demand that their salaries be paid has not been met.

Prof Dr Fareeda Islam, a member of the KMDC’s Teachers Action Committee and the head of the pharmacology department of the college, said the faculty has not been paid since the last four months, due to which they have no other option but to protest against the administration.

She added that there have been no academic activities at the KMDC for at least 10 days because of the teachers’ protests and the faculty members have also been boycotting OPDs at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, which is the teaching hospital for the KMDC.

Dr Fareeda explained that the KMC in its 2018-19 budget had raised 15 per cent salaries of the teaching staff but the teachers were still waiting for their unrevised salaries. “When we approach the college administration, we are told that the KMDC receives insignificant funds and the issue can’t be resolved until the college gets enough funding from the Sindh government or the KMC.”

When asked for his view, KMDC Vice Principal Prof Dr Arshad Shaikh declined to comment on the issue. He, however, admitted that the KMDC faculty had of late resorted to protests.