The B J Medical College may become the first institute in Gujarat to make it mandatory for the teaching staff to publish research papers to qualify for promotion. The college authorities recently had a meeting with Gujarat University Vice-Chancellor Parimal Trivedi to implement this rule introduced by the Medical Council of India (MCI) in 2009. Currently,there are over 500 teachers in the college. State Minister of Health and Family Welfare Jaynarayan Vyas said: This is an MCI regulation. It is important that postgraduate teachers document their research studies for larger peer access. The state government is taking keen interest in this; any college can implement this rule. Dr H P Bhalodia of the B J Medical College and an MCI member said: There is a protocol that should be followed to bring about any change in the recruitment and promotion procedure. For the promotion of teaching staff,the proposal made by a medical college is first sent to the General Administration Department (GAD),which then sends it to the Gujarat Public Service Commission. We have spoken to the state government on this issue. The MCI has introduced this rule for two reasons: to increase the number of senior staff in a government set up,and increase the research work for those doing postgraduate courses in medical colleges. Commenting on this,MCI president Dr Ketan Desai said: This is a new regulation,therefore the MCI must give suitable time to the medical colleges to follow specific procedure and then implement the rules. Medical colleges might implement this procedure by next year. According to the MCI,the minimum service period required for promotion from assistant professor to associate professor rank has been reduced from five years to four years. At least two research papers would be mandatory to get the promotion. As for promotions from associate professor to professor level,the service period comes down from four years to three years; four research papers would be required for promotion. M M Anchalia,Director of Medical Education and Research,B J Medical College,said: Already,the teaching staff in B J Medical College have discussed within themselves to make the publishing of research papers compulsory for promotion. The college has also spoken to the Health Department on this. This regulation might be implemented if the government gives us a go ahead.
