NMC Guidelines Put 150 MBBS Seats Intake Cap on New Medical Colleges set up from next year

New Delhi: The recent guidelines by the National Medical Commission (NMC) have stated that the intake capacity for the new medical colleges being set up from the academic year 2024-2025 will be restricted to a maximum number of 150 MBBS seats.

NMC, the Apex medical education regulatory body, issued this clarification in the recent "Guidelines for Under Graduate Courses under Establishment of New Medical Institutions, Starting of New Medical Courses, Increase of Seats for Existing Courses & Assessment and Rating Regulations, 2023", which were published in the official Gazette on August 16, 2023.

While specifying the objective of these guidelines, the Commission mentioned, "These regulations shall be applicable for Medical Colleges being established from the academic session 2024-25 onwards. Applications for establishing new undergraduate medical education colleges shall be allowed only for 50/100/150 seats." 

The implementation of these new Guidelines means that there will be a 40 per cent cut in the upper limit of 250 MBBS students for which medical colleges are currently allowed to admit.

According to the Minimum Requirements for Annual MBBS Admissions Regulations, 2000, "Medical Colleges shall be established with an annual intake capacity of 100 /150 MBBS Admissions annually and thereafter can be increased to 150/200/250 MBBS Admissions Annually. The phase-wise Requirements to be fulfilled by the applicant colleges for obtaining Letter of Intent and Letter of Permission for Establishment of New Medical College or Increase in Annual intake& Yearly Renewals for 100/150/200/250 M.B.B.S. admissions annually shall be in accordance with Annexure I, II, III, and IV of these Regulations."

Also Read: Cap of MBBS seats intake to 150 for new medical colleges from 2024, no new institute within 15 km of existing one: NMC

However, now NMC has restricted the intake capacity in respect of the newly set up medical colleges from the next academic year. Further, the Commission has clarified the following:

♦ Only such colleges meeting these requirements shall be eligible for continuing their admission of permitted/recognised number of MBBS students from the academic year 2024-2025.

♦ Colleges seeking increased number of seats cannot exceed a total of 150 MBBS students from the year 2024-25;

♦ Colleges seeking increase in seats for admission, shall have admitted batch fulfilling all the criteria for number of seats admitted for the preceding academic year and also shall be fulfilling all the requirements for increase in seat capacity;

♦ Any additional permitted seat quota for admissions shall be within the number of seats granted for admission to that college;

♦ With the exception that colleges who have applied for academic year 2023-24 for increased seats but failed to get the same, can ask for the same number (totaling 200 or 250) that was in their previous application for one time in the year 2024-25 only.

♦ After A.Y. 2023-24, Letter of permission (LOP) for starting of new medical colleges shall be issued only for annual intake capacity of 50/100/150 seats;

Provided that medical college shall follow the ratio of 100 MBBS seats for 10 lakh population in that state/ U.T.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Guidelines notified on August 16, 2023, came into force from the same date, i.e. the date of their publication in the Official Gazette. NMC had released the draft Regulations of NMC Minimum Standard Requirements for Establishment of New Medical College/Increase of seats in MBBS Course Regulations, 2023 on June 23, 2023.

Schedule-I of the newly notified Guidelines discussed about the issue of accommodation in the medical college and its associated teaching hospitals. It includes the requirements in respect of the college campus, administrative area, college council, central library, lecture theatres, small group teaching facilities, museum, skills laboratory, department offices, rooms for staff and other requirements, medical education unit, research facilities (including communication facilities, student amenities, child care centre), AEBAS system and Close Circuit TV Monitoring of medical colleges, minimum requirement of attendance, close circuit cameras, college website, biometric waste management, hostels for students, interns and resident doctors.

It also discussed the department specific requirements such as dissection hall, autopsy block, rural/urban health training centre, teaching hospitals, outpatient area, indoor beds occupancy, hospital infection Control committee, Indoor department requirements, operation theatres, casualty services, emergency medicine departments, central sterilisation services, pre-anesthesia check up room, pain clinic, central laboratory, blood bank, anti-retroviral therapy centre, pharmacy services and issues like electricity, water and sanitation.

The Schedule II of the Guidelines talked about the Staff requirements. Apart from the General Remarks, it also discussed the faculty requirement for MBBS admissions in respect of various departments such as Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Pathology, Microbiology, Forensic Medicine toxicology, Community Medicine, General Medicine, Pediatrics, Dermatology, Psychiatry, General Surgery, Orthopedics, Otorhinolaryngology, Ophthalmology, Ob-Gyn, Anesthesiology, Radiodiagnosis, and Dentistry. It also specified the required total strength of Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, Tutors/Demos and Senior Residents in respect of the total intake for 50/100/150/200/250 seats.

The requirements regarding the list of equipment for various departments in the college and hospitals have been mentioned under the Schedule III of the Guidelines. Along with these Guidelines, NMC has also included the Annexures regarding Draft guidelines for manpower requirement for research facilities in a medical college, the NMC advisory to install cameras in medical colleges, and Pro-Forma for Display of Information on the College Website.

Click here to view the new National Medical Commission Guidelines

Also Read: NMC Notifies Guidelines for MBBS Course under Establishment of New Medical Institutions, Starting of New Courses, Increase of Seats, Assessment and Rating Regulations 2023