How the MBBS course is structured

The shape of the course

The CBME 2024 guidelines state that every student undergoes 4½ academic years of certified study in four professional years, followed by one year of compulsory rotating medical internship. Each academic year has at least 39 teaching weeks of at least 39 hours a week (page 27).

Within each 12-month phase, about 39 weeks are for teaching; the other 13 are for examinations and results (9 weeks), vacation (2 weeks) and public holidays (2 weeks). Phase III Part II has about 62 teaching weeks out of 78. Clinical postings run at 15 hours a week from Phase II onwards (pages 30–31).

Large-group lectures may take no more than one third of a subject’s hours; the rest must be small-group teaching, practicals, clinical work, self-directed learning and tutorials (page 27).

Components every student goes through

• Foundation Course. Two weeks at the start of Phase I, orienting students to the profession, the MBBS programme, ethics, the health system, first aid and basic life support, with optional language and computer-skills programmes. 75% attendance is mandatory, certified by the Principal or Dean. A mentor–mentee programme begins here, at one mentor to three mentees, and continues until internship ends (pages 32–34).
• Early clinical exposure in Phase I, linking basic sciences to patient care (page 34).
• Family adoption programme. Through village outreach, each student adopts at least three and preferably five families, continuing through the course (page 29).
• AETCOM (Attitude, Ethics and Communication) — a longitudinal programme across all phases and internship. 75% attendance in AETCOM is required to sit university examinations in every phase (pages 35–37).
• Alignment and integration. About 20% of each phase’s time is used for integrated teaching. Six integrated modules run across the course: anaemia, ischaemic heart disease, diabetes mellitus, tuberculosis, hypertension and thyroid (pages 31, 37).
• Electives. One month, in two 15-day blocks in Phase III Part II — the first after the Phase III Part I examination. Electives are mandatory, cannot be used to make up missed postings or attendance, and need 75% attendance and a log book to be eligible for the final examination (pages 30, 35).
• Learner-doctor method (clinical clerkship) from Phase II: students join a unit’s admission days, follow assigned patients to discharge under supervision, and keep a case record. No student is given independent charge of a patient (pages 38–39).

Language of teaching

The guidelines permit teaching, learning and assessment in bilingual mode — Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil or Telugu, along with English (page 26).

No migration between colleges

GMER-23 states: “No student designated to a Medical Institution, notwithstanding anything stating in these regulations, shall seek migration to any other Medical Institution” (Regulation 18).

Curriculum corrections since publication

On 10 October 2024 the Board issued a corrigendum to the 2024 curriculum following observations of the Madras High Court — revising competencies in Psychiatry, Physiology and Paediatrics — and stated that the disability competencies were under review by an expert committee and would be notified later.