I’ve got the numbers in, and I’m ready to tell you guys how terrible and great I feel about this.
Pakistan has two main categories of medical schools: Government and Private. One insanely cheap, the other, insanely expensive. Just depends on what you prefer.
Without further ado, let’s jump right into the insane fee gap between these two groups, and how that’s affecting everything here in the healthcare system.
If you’re a medical student, you’ll encounter four main types of students.
Local Open Merit students: Students that are residents of Pakistan. These students come under the Open Merit category (aka the competitors who made it to the list).
Self Finance students: Students who pay more fee than locals to take reserved seats. There’s a certain number of seats provided by HEC (Higher Education Commission).
Foreign Nationals: Students with dual nationality. They’re also sometimes called overseas, but I’m going to make a distinction between overseas and foreign nationals here. I don’t like the word foreign national too much, dual national sounds much better. Dual nationals can also apply through overseas seats under SFS because they still got their education outside of Pakistan despite having another nationality (e.g. American Pakistanis).
Overseas: Students who have Pakistani nationality but live outside Pakistan. They do not need the nationality of another country like foreign nationals.
Others: This can include disabled students, students from rural areas etc.
Let’s go over a couple of categories in medical universities.
Open Merit: Extremely competitive. Students get in based on “Merit”, which includes the entry test and their school marks. The biggest category.
PTAP (Pakistan Technical Assistance Programme): Special program created for those in developing countries and for dual nationals (aka foreign nationals). They pay local fees.
SFS (Self Finance Scheme): HEC’s program to help both local students and overseas students get admission in medical college.
Other categories: Seats reserved for underprivileged/rural areas, and other categories.
Government colleges all have a pretty similar process. The difference comes with private colleges like AKU (Aga Khan University). They have their own testing system, and admission policies. Privatized education makes it difficult for those who can’t afford it but want good facilitation. Private colleges are mainly characterized by their international standards, and facilitation. They’re also the most expensive, both for locals and overseas/dual nationals/foreign nationals. Nonetheless, they’re even more expensive for overseas/dual nationals/foreign nationals. All the price differences have been listed below. In Pakistan, everything comes down to USD when you’re an overseas/dual national/foreign national. So yes, your education will be extremely expensive because of where you received your education.
This is particularly why I applied through PTAP, and alhamdullillah got in. PTAP is like a scholarship program that has 20 seats for dual nationals to apply for. Seats are given based on merit and are only for government medical colleges. If you get in, then you would pay local fees, which is a huge advantage. You’re going to be saving thousands of dollars.
For overseas, prices of medical colleges range depending on the institution. Name matters more than anything here. Yes, there are certain government medical colleges that are more prestigious than others, hence their tuition is more expensive. For example, Dow has a tuition fee of $18000, and Ayub Medical College has it at $6000. However, the prestigious institutions are also more competitive.
The competitive nature of private and government medical schools has a drastic effect on the healthcare system. The government hospitals have near to no facilitation for both patients and doctors. These hospitals are swarmed with hundreds of patients every day, usually the poor socioeconomic class. Whilst, private hospitals (super expensive for patients) have international standards and great facilities but lack resourcefulness (because majority of Pakistanis can’t afford to pay the price). Another factor important to consider is clinical exposure. Although, private medical colleges have a structured system and amazing facilitation, many patients won’t let students examine them, so it comes with its downfall. In government hospitals, that’s not the case, in fact, there’s a patient overload and a great opportunity to gain clinical exposure.
Look below at the fee breakdown of several medical schools, both private and government.
GOVERNMENT MEDICAL COLLEGES
DOW MEDICAL COLLEGE
Local student Fees (**PTAP students also pay this amount)
31,900 Tuition
18,700 Admission Fees
15,000 Transport
80,100 with transport FOR YEAR 1,
THEN SUBSEQUENT YEAR IS TUITION FEE PKR 31,900 + TRANSPORT FEE
65,100 without transport FOR YEAR 1,
THEN SUBSEQUENT YEAR IS TUITION FEE PKR 31,900 + TRANSPORT FEE
Tuition Fee Comparison Overseas/Foreign National
Overseas Tuition Fee: $18000 USD/year
Local Tuition Fee: PKR 31,900 or $190.45/year
Calculate for 5 Years:
PKR 267,700 WITH TRANSPORT
$1592.73 USD
$2231.75 CAD
Overseas Self-Finance Scheme (aka SFS) FEES
Includes Government colleges
Tuition fees range from $6000-$18000/year
Admission fee ranges from $300-$500
SMC (Sindh Medical College): $12000, $500 Admission Fee
DMC (Dow Medical College): $18000
AMC (Ayub Medical College): $6000
FEE STRUCTURE FOR SMC ABOVE
PRIVATE MEDICAL COLLEGES
AKU (Aga Khan University)
OVERSEAS
Total: $35,563 USD à FOR OVERSEAS
Includes everything (even Hostel) for year ONE.
Tuition Fee Comparison
Overseas Tuition Fee: $25k/year
Local Tuition Fee: PKR 903,600 or $5388 USD/year
AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY FEES
CMH Combined Military Hospital Lahore
Tuition Fee Comparison
Overseas Tuition Fee: $18000 for tuition
Local Tuition Fee: PKR 642,000 or $3828 USD
Both Local and Overseas Admission Fee: $300
Stay blessed and have a great Ramadan;)
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