National Medical Commission to carry out rating of medical colleges

New Delhi: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has decided to carry out accreditation and rating of all medical colleges regulated by it through an independent third party agency and released a draft framework of criterion based on which the ratings will be done.

The draft framework for Accreditation and Ranking of Medical Colleges comprising total 11 criteria and 78 parameters compiled by the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of NMC has been placed in the public domain for seeking comments and suggestions from stakeholders.

The latest draft comes over an year after the apex body prepared a draft framework for the accreditation and rating of medical institutions in partnership with the Quality Council of India (QCI).

The NMC had signed an MoU with the QCI in 2023 for assessing ratings of medical colleges.

The new draft has dropped some parameters - stipends paid to interns and residents and proportion of full-time or regular professors in the overall faculty for rating medical colleges --- earlier proposed in the 2023 draft.

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.