UGC adds 33 new allied and healthcare degree courses; increases duration for BPT programmes

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has added 33 new allied and healthcare degree courses to its list of approved courses, as proposed by the National Commission for Allied Healthcare Professions (NCAHP). The commission has also modified the nomenclature and course duration of certain courses.

The decision is aimed at bringing uniformity across courses, nomenclatures, and academic curriculum standards across allied and healthcare programmes.

Medical programmes across 17 disciplines, for which the commission has designed uniform curricula, institute norms, and admission criteria, have the higher education regulator’s stamp of approval.

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'One nation one curriculum' by 2030: NCAHP chairperson

Yagna Shukla, chairperson, NCAHP , said: "This UGC notification will bring uniformity across course nomenclatures, especially in the disciplines where there's a lot of disparity, such as psychology and medical and psychiatric social work. It will help realise our objective of 'one nation one curriculum' by 2030 or 2031."

The newly added courses are part of various disciplines such as medicine and surgery, ayurveda, unani, homeopathy, allied and healthcare, pharmacy, paramedical, and nursing.

According to the notification, the duration of the Bachelor of Optometry (BOptom) course has been increased from four to five years.

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UGC asks colleges to restructure MOT, MPT courses

Moreover, the course duration of the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (BOT) and Bachelor of Physiotherapy (BPT) courses have been extended to five years from four-and-a-half-years.

The programme duration for the Bachelor of Physiotherapy (BPT) has also been raised from 4 and a half years to 5 years.

“The Universities which are offering MOT and MPT programmes shall accordingly restructure the programme and award the degrees under the specified nomenclature,” the notification read.

Recently, Careers360 reported that the NCAHP had sought to enforce the common curricular and academic norms across the country from the academic session 2026-27.

However, some states and UTs have not yet taken the first step to establish the state allied and healthcare councils (SAHCs), the report read. Whereas, some have set up their SAHCs without even following the provisions of the NCAHP Act, majorly affecting their functioning, it added.