New Delhi: The National Medical Commission (NMC), through its Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB), has specified the conditions for applying to establish new medical colleges or increase MBBS seats in existing institutions for the Academic Year 2025-2026.
The NMC has also provided the necessary documentation for online applications for undergraduate (UG) medical courses for the upcoming academic year. Earlier this month, MARB invited applications for the establishment of new medical colleges and the increase of UG seats at existing medical institutions. MARB also issued guidelines for the assessment, evaluation, and application procedures for MBBS and PG courses, alongside instructions for identifying fraudulent patients and a code of conduct for assessors.
In its recent notice dated 19th December 2024, NMC reiterated the guidelines and announced that applications would be accepted only through the online portal for the 2025-2026 academic session under specific conditions.
The conditions for applying to set up a new medical college or increase MBBS seats in an existing institution for the 2025-2026 academic year include the following:
- Applications will only be accepted through the official NMC web portal.
- The application period will last for one month from the date of this notice.
- The applying institution must comply with all relevant regulations, guidelines, and notices issued by the NMC and other authorities.
- For the 2025-2026 academic year, the cap on the number of MBBS seats per college has been temporarily relaxed, with a maximum of 150 seats per institution, adhering to the ratio of 100 MBBS seats for every 10 lakh population.
- Applicants must fill out the online application form according to the guidelines provided.
- Documents required for establishing a new medical college or increasing UG seats:
- Essentiality Certificate (EC) and Consent of Affiliation (CoA).
- Justification for the number of requested seats and proof of the corpus fund for the institution.
- Solvency certificate, land ownership documents, and proof of hospital capacity.
- Financial, administrative, and infrastructure capabilities, especially for non-government institutions.
- Signed certificate confirming the accuracy of the provided information.
- The application will be considered only after the online payment of the requisite fee.
- Private medical institutions must submit a bank guarantee, while government institutions must provide an undertaking, within seven working days of receiving the Letter of Intent (LOI).
- Ensure that all documents and information are correctly uploaded before submission.
- Applications submitted earlier in response to the 5th December 2024 notice are still valid.
- Institutions granted a Letter of Permission (LoP) for 2024-2025 may apply for increasing MBBS seats for the 2025-2026 academic year, provided all criteria are met.
The NMC also released the process for filing online applications for establishing new UG medical institutions and increasing UG seats. It includes registration, document submission, and a fee structure based on the number of seats requested, ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh for new colleges and Rs 5 lakh for every 50 seats for existing institutions.
A performance bank guarantee is required for the establishment of new colleges and for increasing MBBS seats, with amounts ranging from Rs 15 crore to Rs 25 crore, depending on the number of seats.
Further details, including the formats for necessary documents like the Essentiality Certificate and Consent of Affiliation, are available in the official NMC notice.
