Around 150 postgraduate (PG) medical students in Karnataka, admitted to various medical colleges affiliated with Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) during the 2021-22 academic session, are being barred from appearing for their university examination as they are unable to fulfil the attendance criteria.
As per a notice released by the university on October 1, PG medical students are required to have 80 per cent attendance during each six months of the course in order to appear for the university exams, which are tentatively scheduled for the first week of January 2025.
However, students have pointed out that a few were admitted late due to delays in the counselling process, which will result in them missing the exams.
Dr Sirish Shivaramaiah, President of Karnataka Association of Resident Doctors (KARD) and a Junior Resident at Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), told EdexLive, “In the MD (Doctor of Medicine) course, we are supposed to appear for exams after the three-year course. The university has released a notification stating that we need 80 per cent attendance every six months. However, around 150 students in Karnataka who joined late are facing attendance shortages in the first six months.”
The United Doctors Front Association (UDFA) has also written to the National Medical Commission (NMC), highlighting that the RGUHS notification contradicts NMC rules, which stipulates that medical colleges should consider attendance across all three years collectively.
Raising these issues, Dr Lakshya Mittal, National President, UDFA, said, “The 2021 batch was admitted in April-May 2022 during the mop-up round of counselling, which was delayed due to COVID-19, and the students had no control over this delay. RGUHS requires students to maintain 80 per cent attendance every six months, but according to NMC rules, attendance should be counted over the entire three years, not in six-month increments. The students are not at fault, yet many are unable to sit for the exam now.”
In a letter addressed to NMC, the association has urged the commission to ensure that all the policies are implemented fairly across all states.
Further, it was also highlighted that as per NMC rules, postgraduate students are required to either present a poster, read one paper at a recognised conference, or publish a research paper as the first author in a journal in order to be eligible for the exam.
However, students are unsure if fulfilling all these requirements is necessary or if completing just one would suffice for final exam eligibility, as this is not clear in the official notice by the RGUHS.