The Education Ministry and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have assured the National MSc Medical Teachers' Association (NMMTA) of addressing their concerns regarding the reforms in the conduct of Medical MSc courses and the roles of such scientists as teachers in medical colleges.

This comes in wake of the recent controversial move of the National Medical Commission to downsize the percentage of scientist teachers in medical colleges. Dr Sridhar Rao, President, NMMTA and Arjun Maitra, General Secretary, NMMTA met key officials of NITI Aayog and the Health Secretary (MoHFW) seeking solutions to their concerns.

"Medical MSc courses, which are conducted in the medical colleges on the lines of MD courses need reforms. Ever since MCI silently abandoned regulating these courses, they are now regulated by individual health universities. In the absence of a regulating scientific council, there are variations in these courses with respect to the mode of admissions, duration of courses, dissertation, etc. Also, the curriculum needs to be upgraded with the changing times,” said Dr Rao.

“PhD aspirants those who wish to appear for NET examination for PhD are forced to take an exam on life sciences as no separate subjects are available for those who pursue Medical MSc subjects. General MSc & Medical MSc are different as the former is the core life sciences and the later one is specialised to suit the medical field,” said Maitra. Key officials of NITI Aayog that deal with education have assured the association to study these issues and address them suitably.

Meanwhile, the association has filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court challenging these regulations, which will hear next on February 17, 2021.