Medical colleges can appoint overseas citizens, pvt doctors to teach MBBS
Decision by Board of Governors aims to address shortage of teachers;
New Delhi: Medical colleges can now appoint private doctors, including overseas citizens, on a part-time basis to teach MBBS and post-graduate students, according to a government notification.
The new regulations do not apply to all AIIMS institutions, PGI Chandigarh and JIPMER in Puducherry established under stand-alone Acts of Parliament, a senior health ministry official said.
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.
The old regulation did not allow private practitioners to teach in medical colleges.
The BoG has now incorporated a new clause by amending existing regulations on minimum qualification for teachers in medical institutions.
The teachers who would be hired on a part-time basis would be called "visiting faculty", according to the new regulations titled 'Minimum qualification for teachers in medical institutions (Amendment) Regulations 2019'.
"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 a 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 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.With agency inputs