Medical teachers in Maharashtra will retire at 62

The medical education department will increase the retirement age of professors from 58 to 62 because of the scarcity of medical teachers in government medical colleges in the state.

The department has finalised the proposal for extending the retirement age. The proposal will be sent to the state cabinet for its approval.

At present, the retirement age of medical professors in the state is 58. The retirement age in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Chattisgarh is 62.

“Medical Council of India (MCI) guidelines recommend 65 as the retirement age for medical teachers,” WB Tayde, director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research, said.

A shortage of good medical faculty is a known fact for the past several years. There are several vacancies for medical teachers in the 14 medical colleges across the state because several teachers have retired and a few have joined private medical colleges.

“The salary of medical teachers went up after the Sixth Pay Commission,” Tayde said. “Nowadays the shifting of teachers to private colleges is not that rampant.”

The faculty shortage affects the number of post-graduate seats in medical colleges because the MCI wants a 1:1 student-professor ratio.

The Maharashtra Medical Teachers Association has welcome the decision. “There is a vacuum of medical teachers. New recruitment takes a long time,” Dr Bharti Kodvilkar, member of the association, said. “It is wise to retain senior professors for a longer time and use their expertise.” Kodvilkar is also a professor in anaesthesia at the JJ Hospital.