Four out of five medical colleges fail medical education regulator’s minimum standards

New Delhi: Nearly 80% of Indian medical colleges do not meet even the minimum criteria laid down by the the medical education regulator.

During and inspection of these grad schools, officials of the regulator National Medical Commission (NMC) found absenteeism of faculties, inadequate and poor infrastructure, and student grievances on issues such as ragging, inadequate hostels, poor student-teacher relationship.

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Consequently, the NMC has imposed penalties ranging from Rs10 lakh to Rs50 lakh, which may even go up to Rs1 crore. In case of these colleges not improving upon these metrics, the regulator plans to reduce the number of seats in these colleges. 

Inspections will also be carried out in post-grad institutions. There are about 700 government and private medical schools in the country. (There are around 700 medical colleges approved by NMC that provide courses such as MBBS, MD/MS, and diploma at the UG & PG levels.)

Many a time what colleges declare on paper, is not found on ground, which necessitates inspections. 

“We have started imposing fines on the medical colleges. Around 80% of colleges are not following rules set by NMC and have been found to be defaulters in terms of poor infrastructure, absence of faculties during teaching hours not putting their attendance on the system, equipment, deficiency in clinical material and non-compliance of minimum standards of requirements including number of classrooms required for 100 students," said an official aware of the matter.

New regulation

Last year, the NMC issued a new regulation called the Maintenance of Minimum Standards of Medical Education Regulations (MSMER), 2023 under which colleges are supposed to give self-declaration and attendance of faculties.

UG or PG medical college have to meet the requirements for the board to give a renewal certificate for continuation of the courses and admission of MBBS students for the next coming academic year.

“Depending upon the quantum of deficiencies being found in medical colleges, we are issuing the penalty. First is the first stage, even after this, medical schools do not improve themselves, we will start reducing the number of seats,” added the official.

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The inspection of medical colleges is a crucial activity for ensuring and enhancing the quality of medical education in India. It is done based on declarations submitted by the medical colleges.

Feedback system

The inspections also include feedback or grievances of the students include- ragging, students are not getting weekly off, no issuance of stipend to the students or in some cases very little stipend is being given, mental health of students etc.

Since last year, all medical colleges have strictly been mandated to implement the Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) to keep a tab on attendance of faculties & students. This has been done to ensure transparent attendance and no manual interference can be done.

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“Everything is being evaluated and when we see the shortcoming, we send them the notices and call them for an appeal. Over 500 colleges have been found to be defaulters and inspection is ongoing. We are having a video meeting with the college authorities to discuss the current situation and still we find significant shortages, then we are putting monetary fine on them. This is for both government & private colleges,” said the second official requesting anonymity adding that two months' time have been given to colleges to rectify the deficiencies.

To make the inspection transparent and free from bias, NMC engages third party assessors to examine the deficiencies.

Queries sent to the health ministry spokesperson remain unanswered.