The National Medical Council (NMC) has now opened avenues for medical diploma holders to join medical colleges as faculty, by broadening and finalising the Teachers Eligibility Criteria for medical colleges.
For medical diploma holders, this move comes as a relief, as their careers had become uncertain after the NMC barred them from taking faculty positions at medical colleges after it replaced the Medical Council of India (MCI).
In the final Medical Institutions (Qualifications of Faculty) Regulations, 2025, published in the official Gazette of India on June 30, the NMC confirmed that medical diploma holders appointed as Senior Resident doctors with four years of experience and appointed in a recognised medical institution before June 8, 2017, will be eligible to hold work as assistant professors in medical colleges, Medical Dialogues reports.
Specifying the experience, research, and other requirements for Assistant Professors in medical broad specialities and surgical broad specialities Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Master of Surgery (MS), NMC stated that "diploma holders appointed as Senior Residents in a recognised medical institution before 08.06.2017 having total experience of four years as Senior Resident" shall be eligible for the post.
Diploma holders will also be eligible for those positions if they have worked as Specialists or Medical Officers in the respective departments of a government medical institution or a government medical institution running a National Board of Examination and Medical Science recognised teaching programme for a total of six years.
“Diploma holders working as Specialist or Medical Officer in the respective departments of a government medical institution or Government medical institution running National Board of Examination and Medical Science recognised teaching programme having cumulative experience of six years,” the NMC notification said.
