MCI acts against over 30 colleges for not meeting standards

The Medical Council of India (MCI) has acted against over 30 medical colleges across the country for "failing" to meet the minimum standards and has recommended among other things their de-recognition and discontinuation of admissions.

The country's apex regulator of medical education took the decision after conducting inspections there. It found the colleges failing to meet standards on factors such as faculty strength or infrastructure facilities for students.

The MCI executive body which met on May 13 took the decisions and its recommendations were forwarded to the Union Health Ministry which will take the final call on them.

"The unanimous decision was taken based on three aspects, infrastructure facility, faculty position and clinical material available to the students. Wherever there is a deficiency, we have to go by Minimum Standard Rules (MSR)," a senior MCI official told PTI.

He said the body found that in these institutions, infrastructure or faculty had not been improved due to which education of the students were suffering.

Another MCI official said the recommendations were in various categories, as for some institutions it was with regard to continuation of recognition while for others they were for renewal of intake.

"Some institutions are recommended not for continuation of admission, some are recommended not for the recognition of their degrees," the senior official said.

He noted that as per the mandate given to MCI by the government, there are minimum standard requirements which the colleges should fulfil before they are granted recognition or continuation of their admissions is recommended.

"Our inspectors go to these institutions, they find out the facilities that are available there. If they match with the MSR, they are granted permission, if they do not match they are not given permission," the official said.

MCI has been in the news lately after a parliamentary standing committee in its report had called for restructuring the body, saying its current composition is "biased" against larger public health goals and is an "exclusive club" of medical doctors from corporate hospitals and private practitioners.