MBBS students protested against UHS
UHS declared a large number of candidates unsuccessful in pharmacology paper
Bahawalpur, Jan 15: Third-year students of MBBS at the Quaid-i-Azam
Medical College (QMC) held a demonstration here on Wednesday against the
University of Health Sciences (UHS) for declaring a large number of candidates
unsuccessful in pharmacology paper. They also demanded award of extra
marks to the candidates to clear the paper in the second professional
examination. The demonstrators said the pharmacology
paper was very tough and multiple choice questions (MCQs) were drawn from
syllabi above their academic standard. They also demanded that the QMC be
affiliated with the Islamia University of Bahawalpur and disaffiliated from the
UHS. When the principal and faculty assured them that their demands would
be conveyed to the UHS vice-chancellor, the demonstrators called off their
protest with a warning that they would take to the street again if their demands
were not accepted within a couple of days. QMC Principal Prof Dr Mazharul
Attique said that the UHS results of the second professional were
"unsatisfactory" as 103 of 270 QMC students were declared failed. He said
he had a telephonic talk with UHS Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Husain Mubashir and
had conveyed him the students' demands. According to the principal, the
UHS vice-chancellor informed him that he had formed a committee consisting of
four professors to examine the whole issue and submit their recommendations to
solve the matter in accordance with the demands of the protesting students of
different medical colleges in the province. Dawn
Taseer calls for end to 'public-private divide': Medical education
Lahore: Governor Salmaan Taseer has underscored the need for
level playing-field for both public and private medical institutions in the
province, directing the health department to take all stakeholders on board in
this respect. In a letter written to the provincial health secretary by
the Governor's Secretariat, Salmaan Taseer, who is also the chancellor of the
public-sector universities in the province, directed him to involve the Pakistan
Medical and Dental Council, the University of Health Sciences and law and
education departments to bring about 'uniformity' in the government policy (both
at federal and provincial levels) towards the private medical
institutions. The letter says certain issues relating to the
private-sector medical colleges functioning in Punjab have been brought to his
knowledge. It was discussed that the private-sector medical colleges
might be disaffiliated from the UHS. The requirement of compulsory
affiliation with the UHS had diluted the autonomy granted to the private medical
colleges by their statutes. The chancellor was informed that according to
the admission criteria laid down by the PMDC, the candidates seeking admission
to medical colleges must have at least 60 per cent marks in the FSc (pre-medical
or equivalent examination) whereas the UHS had imposed the criterion of minimum
65 per cent marks. "As a mandatory requirement, every medical student is
required to be registered with the PMDC and a student of a private medical
college has to pay Rs10,000 registration fee to the UHS. The UHS, on the
other hand, does not charge any fee from the students of public-sector medical
institutions. "The UHS charges Rs5.5 per cent of the tuition fee from
each student of a private medical college as administrative charges. It is not
so in the case of public medical college." The letter further says: "The
private medical colleges are subjected to frequent inspections by the UHS,
thereby creating a general impression that their objective is to intimidate them
(private medical colleges) to keep them in line. "The UHS charges Rs1
million as subscription to its endowment fund from the private medical colleges,
though nothing is charged from the public ones." Salman Taseer was also
briefed on the affiliation of the College of Medicine and Dentistry, Lahore, a
private institution, with the UHS. University of Lahore board of governors
chairman M.A. Rauf informed the governor that Section 37 of the UHS Ordinance
2002 had indiscriminately been applied in the affiliation (of CMD), thus eroding
the autonomy of the University of Lahore. Citing an example, Mr Rauf
maintained that the former King Edward Medical College and Fatima Jinnah Medical
College had been exempted from the UHS affiliation.The governor, however,
desired that this case should be reconsidered in terms of the relevant
provisions of the UHS Ordinance. A senior doctor is of the view that
'level playing-field' cannot be offered in the case of private and public
medical institutions as the students of the latter are 'bright ones meeting top
merit criterion'. "The admission to the private medical colleges is
purchased and auctioned by the students of low merit. Those who want to
disaffiliate their private medical institutions with any public university are
afraid of mechanism for assurance of quality of education," he maintains. Dawn
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