Srinagar, July 20: India’s medical education sector is set for a major transformation as the National Medical Commission (NMC) has notified the Medical Institutions (Qualifications of Faculty) Regulations, 2025, aimed at addressing the chronic shortage of qualified teachers and supporting the Central Government’s vision of adding 75,000 new medical seats over the next five years.
The regulations, issued earlier this month by the Post Graduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) under the NMC, are designed to widen the pool of eligible faculty and facilitate the expansion of MBBS and MD/MS seats across the country.
As per the NMC, India’s healthcare system is undergoing significant transformation, with the Central Government announcing a vision to add 75,000 new medical seats over the next five years.
“However, a critical bottleneck has been the availability of qualified faculty required to initiate or expand medical programs. These new regulations are a major step towards unlocking the existing human resource potential within government health systems and optimizing medical education infrastructure,” the NMC said as it notified the new regulations.
Non-teaching government hospitals with more than 220 beds can now be designated as teaching institutions to expand medical education capacity and strengthen faculty availability, according to the new faculty rules.
“Existing specialists with 10 years of experience can be appointed as Associate Professors, and those with 2 years can be appointed as Assistant Professors—without the mandatory Senior Residency—provided they complete the Basic Course in Biomedical Research (BCBR) within two years,” it said.
In a move to widen the faculty pool, Senior Consultants with three years of teaching experience in NBEMS-recognized government medical institutions are eligible for the post of Professor.
It said that the Diploma holders working as Specialist or Medical Officer in the respective departments of a Government medical institution or Government medical institution running National Board of Examination and Medical Science recognized teaching programme having cumulative experience of six years, shall be eligible for the post of Assistant Professor.
The new rules said that a cumulative period of up to five years served by a faculty member in the NMC or a University or State Medical Council or medical education department or medical research related Government organization, shall be deemed as teaching experience.
The new set of regulations state that new government medical colleges are now permitted to start UG and PG courses simultaneously, expediting the production of healthcare professionals and teaching faculty.
It further stated that PG courses can now be started with two faculty members and two seats, relaxing the earlier requirement of three faculty and a senior resident. Bed requirements per unit have also been rationalized for several specialties.
Now as per the NMC regulations, more feeder broad specialties have been allowed for various super specialty programs, enabling better utilization of existing faculty across departments.
In addition to Anatomy, Physiology, and Biochemistry, departments of Microbiology and Pharmacology can now appoint faculty with MSc-PhD qualifications.
The upper age limit for appointment as Senior Resident has been increased to 50 years in pre-clinical and para-clinical subjects such as Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Pathology, Microbiology, Forensic Medicine, and Community Medicine.
The norms said that the experience gained as Tutors or Demonstrators by candidates with postgraduate qualifications shall be considered valid for eligibility as Assistant Professor.
As per the new regulations, faculty with super specialty qualifications currently working in broad specialty departments can be formally designated as faculty in their corresponding super specialty departments.
