Health Ministry Notifies New Rules Permitting Private Doctors Including Overseas Citizens To Teach At Medical Colleges

Medical colleges in India will now be permitted to appoint private doctors, including overseas citizens, on part-time basis to teach MBBS and post-graduate students, PTI reported.

As per the current regulatory regime, private practitioners are not allowed to teach in medical colleges.

The decision by the Board of Governors (BoG), which is vested with powers of the medical education regulator Medical Council of India (MCI), is aimed at addressing the shortage of teachers in private and government colleges.

MCI followed a rigid teaching faculty definition and consequently medical colleges were unable to tap the pool of practicing doctors who are interested in teaching as adjunct or part time teaching faculty.

The government last year dissolved the MCI, the apex body that regulated medical education in the country, and replaced it with a Board of Governors (BoG). BoG took over the council's powers and functions pending the setting up of National Medical Commission that will replace the MCI.

The BoG has now incorporated a new clause by amending existing regulations on minimum qualification for teachers in medical institutions.

The new rules allow teachers to be hired on part-time basis as a “visiting faculty”.

“With a view to enhance the comprehensiveness and quality of teaching of both undergraduate and postgraduate students in pre-clinical, para-clinical and clinical departments, medical colleges/medical institutions can appoint additional faculty members on part-time basis who would be known as “visiting faculty,” the notification read.

To encourage and facilitate the inclusion of Indian diaspora in medical education, overseas citizens of India can also be appointed as visiting faculty, it stated.

The notification states that that the visiting faculty has to possess postgraduate degree as prescribed in the respective regulations for appointment in the concerned specialty and a minimum of eight years of work experience in the concerned specialty after obtaining the postgraduate degree.

The maximum age limit up to which a person can be appointed as a visiting faculty shall be 70 years.

The strength of visiting faculty in a department for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching cannot be more than 50 per cent of the faculty strength prescribed for the concerned specialty.

According to the notification, the selection of visiting faculty members will be made by a committee comprising Director/Principal/Dean of the medical college as the chair of the panel.

The members will include the head of department of the concerned specialty, the head of department from any other specialty and at least one expert on the subject from a medical college outside the city, preferably from an institute of national importance.

Visiting faculty could include persons working in private health care, non-governmental organisations, retired personnel etc.

The college may also provide honorarium to the visiting faculty.