NMC to roll out accreditation & ranking of medical colleges
The National Medical Commission (NMC) has announced plans to conduct accreditation and ranking of all medical colleges under its jurisdiction through an independent third-party agency. In line with this, the commission has released a draft framework outlining the criteria and parameters that will form the basis for these ratings.
Developed by the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of the NMC, the draft framework features 11 broad criteria and 78 parameters. It has been made available in the public domain to invite comments and suggestions from stakeholders.
This latest draft comes over a year after the commission, in collaboration with the Quality Council of India (QCI), initially prepared a framework for medical college accreditation and ranking. Notably, the NMC had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with QCI in 2023 to facilitate the assessment process.
In an update, the new draft has omitted certain parameters previously included in the 2023 version — such as the stipends provided to interns and residents, and the ratio of full-time or regular professors within the total faculty strength — from its evaluation criteria for medical colleges.
Also, the number of parameters from 92 in the previous draft have been reduced to 78. Further, under the research output and impact criterion, the specific mention of publication of high quartile category journals has been removed.
Under the research output and impact criterion, parameters like number of research papers published in indexed journals, number of citations published research papers, impact factors of journals in which research papers are published, number and type of funded research projects completed/ongoing in college, number of patent filed/granted etc. are subsumed.
'This is the first time that medical colleges will be assessed based on the set parameters and rated. The aim is to bring in accountability and adherence to high standards,' Dr BN Gangadhar, Chairman of the NMC, said.
'Also what has been placed in public domain is only a draft document and we are open to suggestions from stakeholders for including more criterion,' he said. The MARB is responsible for carrying out inspections for granting permission for new medical colleges, increase of MBBS/PG/super-speciality seats and and renewal of permission for existing medical colleges.
(with PTI inputs)
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