The National Medical Commission (NMC) has revised the eligibility criteria for teachers in medical colleges, relaxing some of the requirements for appointing professors. As the number of medical colleges in the country grows, concerns have arisen regarding the availability of faculty members.
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Eligibility Criteria
- Individuals with a minimum of four years’ experience as consultants, specialists, or medical officers in government hospitals—whether teaching or non-teaching—with at least 220 beds are eligible for appointment as assistant professors. According to the revised guidelines, those with at least 10 years of experience in these roles can qualify for the position of associate professor.
- The 2022 guidelines permitted non-teaching doctors to become assistant professors after two years of work in a 330-bed non-teaching hospital, but only if the hospital was being converted into a medical college. This provision was introduced as the government was converting several district hospitals into new medical colleges. The earlier norms specified that this would be a one-time exception.
- The updated norms also ease the criteria for promoting senior residents with diplomas to the role of assistant professor. According to the new guidelines, senior residents working within the same institute are now eligible for the position of assistant professor. Additionally, those who have been teaching National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences-approved diploma courses can become professors in NMC-approved colleges after gaining three years of experience as PG teachers.
- The updated norms for appointing professors now require the publication of just two research papers as associate professors, with the individual listed as one of the first three authors. In contrast, the 2022 guidelines mandated four research papers for professors, with two of them as associate professors. The new norms no longer specify the order in which the person should be listed as an author.
- The previous guidelines set by the Medical Council of India required professors to have four publications as either the first author or corresponding author. However, the 2022 and current norms specify that only original research, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and case series will be considered, excluding letters to the editor or opinion pieces.
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