New Delhi: Taking the feedback from stakeholders into account, the National Medical Commission (NMC) is considering a revised proposal to rotate heads of departments (HoDs) in medical colleges every five years, instead of the earlier proposal for a three-year tenure, TOI has reported.

Speaking to TOI, the President of NMC Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB), Dr. M K Ramesh said that under the revised proposal, the rotation would be restricted to only Professors.

Previously, in the Draft Amendment published in May 2025, it was proposed that both professors and eligible associate professors would be considered for the post of HoDs.

What did the Draft Amendment Say?

NMC’s draft regulations, “Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations (Amendment), 2025” were published in the official Gazette on May 30, 2025. In this draft, the Commission has proposed to introduce a rotating headship every three year.

Regulation 7.1 of the PGMER 2023 discusses the structure of a Department, its Units, its Faculties—Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, and other members of the Department, including Senior and Junior Residents. Regarding headship, the 2023 Regulations stated that “Each Department will be headed by a Professor.”

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that, in proposing to amend this rule, NMC, in the draft regulation (Amendment), mentioned that Department headship shall be changed on a rotational basis every three years among Professors and Associate Professors who are eligible to become Professors.

The Commission had proposed to add the following to the existing Regulation 7.1 of PGMER 2023:

“The post of the Head of Department (HoD) will be rotated every three-years amongst Professors and Associate Professors who are eligible to become Professor, who holds Medical Post-graduate degree, based on seniority in the Department.”

Feedback from Stakeholders

Releasing the draft amendment, NMC, back then, had invited feedback from the stakeholders. NMC received around 513 responses—including 421 recommendations related to HoD rotation revision. Among these, 249 responses (59%) were made opposing the policy, while 172 responses (41%) supported it, according to an official statement.

The stakeholders expressed that fixed HoD tenure will lead to workplace imbalance and could invite disputes. “Frequent changes in leadership could destabilize academic planning and regulatory compliance. Junior Associate Professors may end up supervising senior Professors, leading to workplace disharmony,” the stakeholders further mentioned.

NMC considering rotational headship every five years

According to a TOI report, MARB President Dr. Ramesh said that the commission received substantial feedback on their earlier proposal and the valid points raised by the stakeholders would be taken into account. These suggestions also included rotation periods of five years or 10 years, as well as doing away with mandatory rotation altogether.

Dr. Ramesh further added that the proposal would need to be taken up afresh and the revised draft would be moved shortly. He further added that once initiated, the process would be completed within six weeks. However, he did not confirm whether the NMC would invite comments from the stakeholders again on the revised proposal or take a decision based on the feedback received on the earlier proposal.

Source: Medical Dialogues

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