AP mulls raising retirement age of medical college professors

Vijayawada: To address faculty shortage at medical colleges in the state, health minister Y Satya Kumar Yadav said the govt is mulling increasing the retirement age of professors in government medical colleges to tackle a severe faculty shortage that is affecting the quality of medical education and postgraduate (PG) admissions.Reviewing medical education standards and budget utilisation on Thursday, Satya Kumar Yadav directed the director of medical education (DME) Dr Vishnuvardhan to prepare a comprehensive proposal on increasing the retirement age of professors. The minister noted that while private medical colleges allow professors to serve until the age of 70, government institutions are struggling to retain experienced faculty.According to officials, nearly 200 of the around 800 professor posts in the state's 17 government medical colleges are vacant. The shortage is more acute in super-speciality departments, where 106 of the 159 professor posts remain unfilled. Since National Medical Commission (NMC) norms require one professor for every three PG seats, the vacancies could adversely affect both teaching standards and the availability of postgraduate seats.

The minister stressed that improving the quality of medical education is essential for producing competent doctors and directed officials to ensure that both government and private medical colleges strictly comply with NMC norms on infrastructure and academic facilities. He also asked Dr NTR University of Health Sciences to conduct surprise inspections of medical colleges and take corrective action wherever deficiencies are found.Satya Kumar Yadav instructed officials to prepare an action plan to ensure that at least five government medical colleges in Andhra Pradesh are ranked among the country's top 100 institutions for academic excellence. University officials informed the minister that the coalition government had added 230 MBBS seats and 250 PG seats over the past two years.Expressing concern over student attendance, the minister reiterated that only students with a minimum of 75% attendance, as mandated by the NMC, should be permitted to appear for annual examinations.

He directed officials to immediately introduce an online attendance monitoring system and emphasised the need to strengthen bedside clinical teaching and promote ethical values among medical students.The minister also reviewed the utilisation of budget allocations and Central assistance during the first quarter of the 2026-27 financial year. Officials informed him that Rs 4,130 crore, or 22.72% of the annual budget allocation of Rs 18,216 crore, had been spent between April and June.

Against the proposed Central assistance of Rs 2,308 crore, only Rs 357 crore, or 15.45%, had been utilised.While expressing satisfaction with the overall expenditure, the minister voiced concern over the low utilisation of Central funds and directed officials to improve coordination with the Andhra Pradesh State Medical Infrastructure Development Corporation (APSMIDC) and accelerate ongoing projects. He instructed all departments under the Health Ministry to ensure that utilisation of both the annual budget and Central assistance reaches at least 50% by the end of the second quarter of the financial year.