04 July 2004	Sunday	15 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

ISLAMABAD, July 3: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has worked out a plan to develop and strengthen selected departments of social sciences in public sector universities to promote research environment in these disciplines, says an official statement.

Financial assistance will be provided to the departments for construction of seminar rooms, development of networking and database besides providing research grants to the faculty members and 40 PhD scholarships to the departments.

Social sciences and humanities have a major role to play in the socio-economic development of any country. There has been sporadic development in this sector over the years but no substantial effort has been undertaken until now.

The statement said HEC had taken a number of initiatives for the support and development of this dormant sector. The HEC has also constituted a committee on development of social sciences and humanities for planning and overseeing the progress of this sector, it added.

EASTERN MEDICINE: The HEC has reviewed the curriculum of eastern medicine and surgery being taught at public sector universities.

In a recent meeting, the National Curriculum Revision Committee reviewed the course contents of the existing curriculum of Bachelor of Eastern Medicine and Surgery and curricula of MPhil and PhD programmes.

It was agreed that the name of the degree in Tibb would now be Bachelor of Eastern Medicine and Surgery (BEMS) and duration of the course would be five years.

The eligibility for admission to BEMS would be FSc (premedical), BSc (in zoology, botany, chemistry, microbiology, biochemistry and physiology) or equivalent. It was suggested that the universities where BEMS degree course was being taught should have a hospital of eastern medicine.

The committee suggested that the government should establish a centre of excellence in eastern medicine for the advancement of research and development and the BEMS degree should be considered equivalent to medical and allied sciences for admissions to higher studies.