NCHER and NCHRH
The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry on behalf of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has decided that medical education will be under the aegis of the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) or the National Council for Human Resource in Health (NCHRH). According to the new formulation, both NCHER and NCHRH will operate separately.
Medical education will still be a part of the NCHRH and NCHER will be responsible for quality, content and curriculum of the education. This change has come into action after approvals from Kapil Sibal as well as Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. While there is still a need to fine tune the formulations, the association between NCHER and the NCHRH has been decided upon.
The two Ministries have been fighting a turf war for more than a year now with the task force, set up by the HRD Ministry, bringing all higher education, including medical education and legal education under the purview of an overarching regulatory body — the NCHER — while the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been opposing it tooth and nail saying that medical education was closely linked with health infrastructure and should come under the ambit of the NCHRH.
The formulations will be finalized on February 15 in a meeting between the NCHER and the NCHRH.
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