Institutional Hierarchy and Access

MedCES serves individuals, institutions, and governing organisations through one application. To do this safely, it separates three concepts that are easy to confuse:

1. the 3L3T operating model, which explains who the application serves and the scope at which they work;
2. the organisational hierarchy, which determines where a user’s permissions apply;
3. external-authority relationships, which describe regulation, affiliation, examination, counselling, and reporting without automatically granting access.

The 3L3T model

Three service layers

The three layers describe whose work or service is being supported.

Layer	Who it serves	Admissions example
Public or individual	Candidate, student, teacher, alumnus, and another authorised individual	A candidate submits information, uploads documents, pays permitted charges, and views published outcomes
Institutional	The medical college and teaching hospital as an operating institution	The admission office receives allotments, verifies candidates, records decisions, and creates the student handoff
Administrative or governance	A Directorate of Medical Education, trust, society, university group, or another body overseeing institutions	The governing body monitors intake, utilisation, deadlines, exceptions, and compliance across its authorised institutions

Every module should identify which layers it serves. The layer does not by itself grant access.

Three access tiers

The three tiers describe the organisational scope at which a permission is positioned in MedCES.

Tier	Scope	Typical entities	Example
Governance tier	One or more institutions under a common administrative body	DME, trust, society, university group	A DME admissions officer sees authorised government medical colleges
Institution tier	One operating institution	Medical college, independent medical university, teaching institution	A college admission nodal officer sees their own college
Operating-unit tier	A defined part of an institution	Department, office, programme offering, admission cycle, cohort	A Head of Department sees assigned postgraduate programme cases

The tiers are hierarchical access scopes. They are not the same as the regulatory-standard tiers used elsewhere to classify rules.

Organisational hierarchy

The organisational hierarchy contains entities through which operational responsibility and access can be inherited.

Governance entity
└── Institution
    ├── Office or operational unit
    ├── Department
    └── Programme offering

The exact tree varies by deployment:

• a state deployment may use DME → Medical College → Department;
• a private group may use Trust → Medical College → Department;
• a health-sciences university operating its own colleges may use University → Constituent College → Department;
• an independent institution may begin directly at the institution tier.

An MBBS programme offering may sit directly under the institution because it is college-wide. A postgraduate or super-speciality offering can be associated with its academic department.

External authorities are relationships, not automatic ancestors

A medical college answers to several authorities at the same time. Those relationships do not form one reliable parent-child tree.

Relationship	Example	Meaning	Inherits operational access?
Administers	DME → Government medical college	The body administratively controls the institution	Yes, when configured in the organisational hierarchy
Owns	Trust → Private medical college	The body owns or governs the institution	Yes, when configured in the organisational hierarchy
Contains	College → Department	The unit belongs to the institution	Yes
Offers	College/department → Programme offering	The institution is authorised to run the programme	Yes, where programme-level access is used
Affiliates	Health-sciences university → College	The university grants affiliation and normally governs examinations	No, unless a separate user grant is issued
Regulates	NMC → Institution/programme	The regulator recognises the institution, intake, and applicable standards	No
Conducts counselling	MCC/state authority → Counselling process	The authority publishes seat and allotment information	No
Examines	University → Programme/cohort	The university conducts or controls the professional examination	No

This separation prevents a regulator, affiliating body, or counselling authority from acquiring candidate-level operational access merely because it is related to the institution.

How effective access is determined

MedCES combines a user’s real-world role with a capability grant and an entity position.

User identity
  + real-world role
  + capability grant
  + positioned entity and permitted descendants
  + assigned programme, cycle, or work queue
  + current record state
  = effective access

Two shared records enforce this model:

1. an entity relationship record defines the parent-child hierarchy and the type of relationship;
2. a user entity position identifies the entity at which the user works or has been granted responsibility.

Only relationships marked as access-inheritable participate in descendant access. Affiliation, regulation, and counselling relationships remain reference relationships unless a separate grant is issued.

Real-world example

Consider Government Medical College Nagpur for a postgraduate admission cycle.

Organisational access tree

Directorate of Medical Education and Research, Maharashtra
└── Government Medical College Nagpur
    ├── Admission Office
    ├── Department of General Medicine
    │   └── MD General Medicine offering
    └── Department of General Surgery
        └── MS General Surgery offering

An authorised Directorate admissions officer can receive a roll-up view over configured colleges. The college’s Admission Nodal Officer sees Government Medical College Nagpur. The Head of General Medicine sees only cases assigned to the MD General Medicine offering.

External relationships

NMC ── regulates/recognises ──> College and programme intake
MUHS ── affiliates/examines ──> College and programmes
MCC ── conducts counselling ──> All India counselling process
Maharashtra state authority ── conducts counselling ──> State counselling process

These authorities influence rules, seats, and source records. They do not automatically sit in the operational permission tree.

Access rules that apply everywhere

• A capability answers what the user can do.
• The positioned entity answers where the user can do it.
• Descendant access is available only across approved structural relationships.
• A department-level user does not gain sibling-department access.
• An institution-level user does not gain access to a sibling institution.
• A governance-level user receives only the capabilities explicitly granted at that level.
• A candidate always remains restricted to their own case.
• Sensitive fields can be restricted further than the containing record.
• Approval authority, data visibility, and ability to edit are separate grants.
• Every grant, override, and sensitive access event is auditable.