OUR STAFF REPORTER Indore
Every medical college in the country will now have to dangle an A or a B++ or a C certificate. Getting an accreditation from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council ( NAAC) has become mandatory for medical, dental, and other para- medical colleges with the NAAC coming up with a manual for grading health educational intuitions ( HEIs).
The NAAC accredits traditional arts, science and commerce colleges but now it has decided to accredit HEIs as well.
There has been an explosion of medical institutions, dental institutions, and other para- medical institutions in India in the last quarter of the century.
There are no uniform standards for infrastructure, faculty size, patient care, and research in all medical, dental and other para medical institutions, although the minimum requirements of the regulatory councils like the Medical Council of India, Dental Council of India, Nursing Council etc, are a pre- requisite for recognition.
The fact that the Regulatory Councils recognise a particular institution does not, by itself, make an outsider ( student, parent, or patient), to have an idea of the comparative standards of these institutions in the country.
‘Indian medical education, being internationally recognized, our graduates clamouring to go abroad for further studies and / or employment, make it necessary and imperative that the HEIs be properly evaluated for its quality. Just as the UGC established NAAC in 1994 to assess and grade the institutions of higher learning on a voluntary basis, it is now thought necessary by the NAAC to have similar accreditation facilities made available to the medical institutions as well,’the NAAC said.
The accrediting agency added: ‘This would be a double- edged sword, making it possible for institutions with excellent facilities to be known while the institutions with inadequate facilities would be made to do a bit of soulsearching to catch up with international standards and strive for excellence.’Whereas minimum requirements are to be fulfilled for recognition as per respective regulatory councils minimum standards, the competition in pursuit of excellence is increasing with the possibility of excellent international institutions opening their campuses / offering programmes in India.’
