ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has warned students against taking admissions in institutions offering unrecognised distance learning medical and dentistry programmes.

The council said it would not register any long distance course or unrecognised medical and dentistry programme.

The PMDC said it had issued letters of warning to several institutions offering medical and dentistry-related additional/postgraduate courses.

The letters were written to non-medical and dentistry institutions after it was observed that they kept on advertising medical and dentistry-related diplomas and medical science courses along with general subjects.

President PMDC Dr Shabbir Lehri in a statement said a number of institutions had started advertising postgraduate or medical and dentistry-related courses which were not recognised by the council.

Council warns students against taking admission in institutes offering distance-learning courses

He said many of such institutions had also claimed in the advertisements that the courses did not require any recognition from the PMDC.

He said this was a misleading tactic by the institutions to mint money. He said long distance courses advertised by the institutions were not acceptable. In fact, the council does not entertain any long distance programme and course, he explained.

Dr Lehri told Dawn that some countries had been offering long distance courses in clinical medicine. On the other hand, a number of institutes in Pakistan have advertised courses for which they were not recognised.

“It becomes a problem for the council because students spend money on such programmes and then start pressuring the council to allow them to start practice. Sometimes, they also criticise the PMDC saying why they were not informed about the unrecognised programmes in advance,” he said.

“Long distance courses are only allowed in community medicine and hospital administration. Even for that, they have to give a proof of the required credit hours. Unfortunately, we have also people who have completed their PhDs through long distance courses,” he said.

“We just want to say that it is in the best interest of the students to get information before getting admissions in any institute because we will not allow them to practice and put the lives of the citizens at risk,” he said.

PMDC Registrar Dr Syed Azhar Shah said no medical or dentistry-related programmes and courses would be recognised until they were registered with the PMDC. Moreover, no doctor can even practice in any field without being registered with the council.

He said those getting admissions in such institutions and courses would waste their time and money. He advised the students and their parents to only apply for programmes that were recognised by the PMDC.

“The council will also take punitive action against institutions which are offering unrecognised courses,” he said.

Published in Dawn September 5th, 2016