A government order was supposed to save families lakhs of rupees.
Instead, families are watching the bill go up.
Here's the twist nobody saw coming.
In April 2026, the National Medical Commission banned something simple: colleges can no longer charge tuition during the mandatory one-year MBBS internship.
Students work that year. They don't attend classes.
So why pay for it?
Fair point. Fair rule.
But someone forgot to check what the colleges would do next.
Instead of cutting the fifth year's charge, colleges simply repackaged the same total across 4.5 years.
Same destination. Longer, steeper road to get there.
One deemed university's 250-seat MBBS programme tells the story:
The internship "became free." The total bill went up anyway.
Another university had families paying ₹28 lakh a year for five years — ₹1.40 crore total.
Now? Squeeze the same money into 4.5 years, and the annual instalment crosses ₹31 lakh.
A third college offered to split the new total into five instalments instead of four.
Sounds generous.
It isn't.
As student counsellor Manickavel Arumugam put it — it's framed as flexibility, but changes nothing financially.
Here's the real problem.
Self-financing and private colleges have fees capped by a state committee.
Deemed universities do not.
No ceiling. No real enforcement teeth. Just a compliance box being ticked on paper.
Tamil Nadu's health minister K G Arunraj isn't letting it slide.
His message to students: if a college charges you extra or skips your stipend, call helpline 104. Anonymously.
The rule was written to protect students during their toughest year.
Colleges just found a way to protect their revenue instead.
The real fight isn't over yet.
That's all for now!
