MBBS in Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College

Typically, the profiles for Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College start with the year when the college was established, 1999-2000. However, this is only half the story, the hospital on which it is based being about fifty years older than the college itself. To be more specific, Holy Family Hospital was established in 1953 in Maghbazar, Dhaka. The hospital was originally founded as a Catholic charitable hospital with the staff of nuns serving as its personnel. Furthermore, Holy Family Hospital used to be the principal hospital for Dacca, which was at that time the capital of East Pakistan. Only in 1999-2000, the initiative of the Government and Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) brought about the establishment of a medical college, which admitted its first batch of only 50 students.

Nowadays, Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College is governed by a council consisting of BDRCS acting as a sponsor, the representatives of the University of Dhaka, and the government of Bangladesh. This type of governance represents an anomaly among the majority of the private medical colleges in Bangladesh, which are owned by a single trust or foundation. As to academic affiliation, it belongs to the University of Dhaka, the oldest and most established university in the whole country. Thus, the syllabus of MBBS programme as well as the examination procedure follow the syllabus set by both Dhaka University and Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC).

The campus is located at 1, Eskaton Garden Road in Ramna, which means that it is close to the centre of Dhaka city and occupies a total area of 8.10 acres (2.50 acres occupied by college buildings and 5.60 acres by the hospital). Unlike the campuses of Habiganj or Sirajganj Colleges, which have been intentionally constructed in district towns in order to move away from Dhaka city, Holy Family is located in the capital and this is a true benefit over other colleges, as a student will be living in the capital surrounded by government institutions, transport infrastructure and a wider range of hospitals.

Attached to the college is Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College Hospital (HFRCMCH), which is about 750-beds hospital offering a wide range of services in practically every specialty, and not only an annexe for teaching purposes. Moreover, the number of students enrolled at the college has increased significantly: nowadays it admits approximately 140 MBBS students per year and up to 50% of places in the intake can be taken by the students of foreign nationalities, although the foreign quota for Holy Family usually is considered to be 25%. This is a higher proportion of foreign students as compared to other medical colleges in Bangladesh, which is why it is popular among Indian students despite the fact that its fee is higher as compared to other colleges.

Indeed, this fee is the honest trade-off for such a choice of college. Thus, the total tuition for foreign students in the five-year programme comes to about USD 49,000 (approximately Rs. 40.7 lakh) and includes one-time admission and registration charges and monthly tuition fee instalments. Such fee structure differs from the fees of public medical colleges, which ask for the fee ranging between USD 8,000 and 10,000. The actual fee figures may vary slightly depending on the admission consultancy, which is typical for colleges not announcing their official fee notification for foreign students. Thus, a student should take any quoted figure as the estimated fee to be confirmed before payment.

Thus, the advantages offered by this college are proximity to the central hospital in Dhaka and a wide range of specialists working there. On the other hand, it asks for a higher fee than public colleges, which makes the choice for Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College a matter of paying more money for basically the same degree (MBBS) and internship with the same requirement of Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC) and the same affiliation, although this time with the University of Dhaka.

As for Indian students, the value of the degree obtained in such college depends upon the recognition by Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC), being listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools issued by WHO and included into the Schedule-I of the National Medical Commission. All of this makes the graduates eligible to take FMGE or NExT examination, which is required for registration in India. However, none of this is unique for this college. What is unique about it is the combination of affiliation with the University of Dhaka, the existence of a large teaching hospital and the central location in Dhaka at a price closer to a private Indian college.