New Delhi – In a major move to ease faculty recruitment in Indian medical colleges, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has announced that doctors with postgraduate qualifications from five English-speaking countries—the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand—will now be exempted from the mandatory one-year Senior Residency required to be appointed as Assistant Professors.
This exemption, however, comes with conditions. Candidates must have one year of teaching experience and be registered to practice in the respective foreign country in the relevant specialty. If these conditions are met, such doctors may be directly eligible for Assistant Professor posts without undergoing Senior Residency in India.
The decision has been finalized under the Medical Institutions (Qualifications of Faculty) Regulations, 2025, which were notified in the official Gazette on June 30, 2025. These regulations list the eligibility criteria for faculty recruitment in Indian medical institutions.
Country-wise Eligibility Criteria
The exemption is subject to meeting specific criteria based on the country where the qualification was obtained:
- United Kingdom: Must hold a Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training or equivalent, with a final FRCS/FRCP and registration to practice.
- United States and Canada: Must possess a Doctor of Medicine degree with Residency Training Certificate in the relevant specialty; for super specialties, completion of an accredited Fellowship Programme is also required.
- Australia and New Zealand: Completion of supervised training leading to FRCS/FRCP in the respective specialty is required; super specialties need at least two years of supervised sub-specialty Fellowship training.
Previous Draft Now Finalised
This exemption was initially proposed in the Draft Teachers Eligibility Qualifications (TEQ) 2024 and has now been formally implemented in the 2025 faculty regulations. While previous regulations recognized foreign PG qualifications as equivalent to MD/MS/DM/MCh, this is the first time NMC has officially waived the Senior Residency requirement for qualified foreign-trained doctors.
This move is expected to attract more globally trained Indian doctors to take up teaching roles in Indian medical colleges, potentially improving both academic standards and clinical training.
