Ceiling reduced for non-MBBS teachers in medical colleges

National Medical Commission (NMC) has issued new regulations in which the ceiling for Non-medical staff in medical colleges has been reduced.

National Medical Commission (NMC) has issued new regulations in which the ceiling for Non-medical staff in medical colleges has been reduced.In the “Minimum Requirements for MBBS Admission Regulations 2020” released by the newly established medical education regulator, the permissible intake of non-medical faculty has come down from 30% to 15% in anatomy and physiology, from 50% to 15% in biochemistry, and from 30% to 0% in microbiology and pharmacology.

While teachers who teach the clinical subjects in medical colleges are always doctors with MBBS and MS/MD degrees, there are also some teachers, about 5-6,000 in the non-clinical subjects with medical MSc or PhDs. They do not have MBBS degrees, their designations ranging from tutor to professor and even head of departments.

The practice of such appointments for teaching pre and para-clinical subjects started in the 1950s when not many doctors were pursuing PG in non-clinical specialties. The commission has said that the new guidelines would apply only to the new colleges that would admit students into the 2021-22 batch but added that the new guidelines would also apply to those medical colleges that would seek raised intake of MBBS students.

President of the National MSc Medical Teachers' Association, Sridhar Rao, stated that a non-medical teacher would be forced to work in the same college until retirement according to the new regulations. There is fear and uncertainty among the community of non-medical teachers as they fear that these guidelines will be illegally extended to the existing medical colleges.