Madras Medical College's pharmacy institute likely to lose approval, face punitive action for violating PCI norms: Report

Chennai- The College of Pharmacy at the Madras Medical College (MMC) is reportedly likely to lose its approval as a Pharmacy institute or face punitive action like a reduction in student admission due to non-compliance with the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) norms and the TN Dr MGR Medical University rules. According to a recent Pharmabiz report, the institute is failing to provide quality education to undergraduate and postgraduate students due to a shortage of faculty and a lack of qualified teachers in the college.

In this regard, a letter has been sent by the Principal of the Pharmacy College to the Director of Medical Education (DME) through the Dean of MMC, reports the daily. Through the letter, it was told to the Director that the college is facing problems and struggles in providing quality education to the undergraduate and postgraduate students. Also, currently, all the classes are conducted and managed by only 17 teachers. However, among these 17 teachers, many faculty members are not even qualified as per the education regulation rules of PCI and the existing recruitment rules which were made 55 years ago.

As per the PharmaBiz media news report, a source in the academic community has alleged that in olden times, when there was a shortage of qualified teachers, pharmacists working in government hospitals with B Pharm qualifications were deputed to the college to teach the degree classes, and later on they got regularised as faculty members for the degree course. Many of these teachers do not possess first-class degrees or first-class M Pharm degrees, however, they continue as professors on the advantage of experience.

However, PCI has mandated that the basic qualification required for a faculty member to teach a degree class is a first-class B Pharm degree, and for postgraduate courses, the teacher must have passed M Pharm degree with first class, but this turns out that MMC is not following the rules and regulations mandated by PCI and TN Dr MGR Medical University.

Meanwhile, despite the shortage of adequate teachers in the institute, the government is still neither appointing adequate staff including professors in all departments to meet the sanctioned posts nor creating any additional posts.

Furthermore, speaking to the Pharma Biz a faculty member of the college has said “Currently, the college is facing an insufficient number of teaching faculties as per the norms of the PCI. The reason he cites for the staff crunch including administrative staff is the apathy of the government. He said, despite repeated requests by the academic community and the alumni associations, the authorities are keeping mum on the issue, and that too for the last half a century”.

The post of professor has been vacant in the departments of pharmaceutics and pharmacology for more than five years, whereas six posts of associate professors are also vacant for more than nine years. Today the college has only 17 teaching faculties both for B Pharm and for M Pharm (4 specializations). As per the PCI rules, for the B Pharm course alone, 19 teachers are required and for M Pharm 16 faculties are needed. The college’s sanctioned strength of teaching faculties is only 27, out of which 10 are lacking. As per the regulators’ norms, nine more posts need to be created, adds Pharmabiz

Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi, who is in charge of the Principal Secretary of the Health Department, said the government will look at the issues positively and try to resolve them after the elections.

Madras Medical College is the oldest pharmacy institute that started diploma courses in pharmaceutical sciences 55 years ago and runs under the state government. Apart from B Pharm batches, the college runs also four specialisations at the postgraduate level (M Pharm).