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- Accreditation:
IRAHE should be empowered to license suitable agencies for accreditation.
Accreditation agencies could award different degrees of accreditation, such as
“Full”, “Provisional” or “On Probation” and have the power to de-recognize.
Institutions would have to ensure transparency in their admission processes,
able and responsible faculties, a multidisciplinary academic learning
environment, transparency in assessment of students and close linkages with
regional health care and delivery systems, in order to be accredited.
- Admission:
Policies of admission and fee structure of private colleges have to be
regulated, not only to stop them from becoming sources of political and
financial power but also to arrest falling standards. There should be only one
All India Common Entrance Test for all students who would like to get
admission to Self Financing Medical Colleges. Since the CBSE conducted
examination for the 15 % All India quota in Government Medical Colleges is
taken by a very large number of students, this would appear to be the ideal
examination whose ambit can be expanded. All self-financing Medical Colleges
should announce their fees in their prospectus so that students can make their
choice for admission. Information Technology should be used to increase
transparency and efficiency in the admission, examination, administration,
teaching, content delivery and other related processes.
2. Quality
- Curriculum:
All institutions must constitute Curriculum Committees that plan curricula
and instructional methods, which are regularly updated.
The structure and composition of the curriculum must describe the content,
scope and sequencing of the courses, including the balance between core and
optional courses. Integration of ICT in the learning process is essential.
Incorporating new skills like management, disciplines like health economics
and frontier areas like bioinformatics should be considered.
- Standards test:
An independent and standardized National Exit Examination at the end of 4 ½
years of study, is essential to conduct a national level assessment of skills
and knowledge. The National Exit Examination could be conducted immediately
after the University examination, and would also serve as a postgraduate
entrance exam.
- Internship
Assessment: The internship year must be assessed to ensure skill
development. The current practice of students continuing to study in the
internship year without going to clinics needs to be addressed. There must be
compulsory rotation from the teaching hospital to the community and district
hospital during the internship period. Duration of the term in the district
hospital should be 6 months, in the Community Health Center 3 months and in
the tertiary care hospital the remaining 3 months. Each intern should be
assigned a “mentor” at the district hospital and the credits should be based
on the assessment by the mentor. The entrance to postgraduate programs should
be based on a summation of the pre & post internship examinations.
- Continuing Education:
There is a need to revamp Continuing Medical Education (CME) based on distance
learning. All professionals should
be required to undergo a re-certification process every five years, which can
be evaluated by credits earned through CME. ICT can be used extensively to
provide CME at the convenience of the learner.
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