New Delhi: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has approved the opening of 50 new medical colleges this year which will have 8,195 MBBS seats, top sources in the Union Ministry of Health said Thursday.
Thirty of these colleges will be government-run while the rest will be private institutions. The new medical colleges will come up in 15 states, with Telangana receiving the highest number of approvals — 13, according to ministry officials.
Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh will have the second-highest number of new medical colleges — five each. Odisha, Gujarat, West Bengal, Assam, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir are also on the list.
According to data from the Union health ministry for the 2022-2023 academic year, there are a total of 654 functional medical colleges and 99,763 MBBS seats in the country.
The NMC has also begun the process of derecognising 38 medical colleges on account of alleged administrative deficiencies such as irregularities in maintaining details on faculty, non-installation of CCTV cameras and failure to adhere to the biometric attendance system.
“These colleges have, however, appealed against the recommendation for derecognition and a final order is still pending,” a source in the ministry told ThePrint. “Some of the colleges may be allowed to induct fresh students at a reduced number of seats.”
Depending on the outcome of this exercise, it is possible that the final intake of MBBS students may be less than the total seats approved for the 2023-2024 academic year, the source added.
Sources in the ministry also said the National Exit Test (NEXT), a proposed common qualifying examination for all final-year MBBS students, would be held for the first time in 2024.
As of now, final-year MBBS exams are held by individual colleges and universities.
ThePrint had earlier reported that the NMC had sought the health ministry’s approval to get NEXT conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi later this year.
“The proposal was assessed and it was found that it may be prudent to get the examination conducted from next year as it requires greater preparation,” a senior ministry official told ThePrint.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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