LAHORE: The Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSRC) has included seven major programmes of the King Edward Medical University in the Schedule III of Gazette and notified the same accordingly.

The programmes include PhD Anatomy, PhD Community Medicine, PhD Biochemistry, MPhil Community Medicine, MPhil Public Health, Masters in Public Health and MD Hematology.

The KEMU has also approved various projects to further expand the scope of education to the students and facilities for the faculty members in collaboration with the local and international medical institutions/organisations.

The decisions were taken in some recent meetings chaired by KEMU Vice Chancellor Prof Khalid Masood Gondal.

The meeting was told that medical education in the KEMU had gone through remarkable changes in order to improve research, examination system, audit process, academic programmes, curricula development, regulations for conduct and discipline, formulation of policies, financial funding and upgrade of the infrastructure.

It reviewed various projects approved for the varsity, including its new campus’ PC11 which would lead to construction of new administrative block similar to the Patiala Block, a 1000-bed state of the art hospital, international undergraduate medical college, college of nursing and allied health sciences with residential and hostel facility, a modern library complex and recreational centre, examination halls, gymnasium, Jammia Masjid (central mosque) and an auditorium with a capacity of 3,000 persons.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Gondal said the KEMU had taken a qualitative leap forward by establishing strong linkages with other universities through general support, research centres and institutes, establishment of new business incubators and technology parks.

He said the purpose of the collaboration with various local and foreign universities and institutions was to ensure the training of our faculty members and young scholars in interdisciplinary research methods and theoretical approaches.

“Last year, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) had increased the KEMU budget to meet the growing financial needs of the varsity”, he said.

Mr Gondal said the government and HEC had extended their full support for construction of the girls hostels and new buildings. All these new projects would be completed within the given timelines.

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and some other university degrees, including MD, MPH and MPhil were awaiting visits and accreditation from regulatory authorities.

The VC said he managed visits of the PM&DC team for accreditation of the PhD and Masters programmes of the varsity. Consequently, international research grants for the KEMU had been approved with collaboration of Imperial College London, he added.

The KEMU has also signed MoUs/agreements with academia. The foreign delegations affiliated with international universities of top QS rankings, including Imperial College London, Harvard University and University of Birmingham have been invited by the varsity.

“The KEMU is going to launch new training programmes of medical education, medical editing and the family medicine for medical professionals seeking skills development”, the VC said.

New post graduate programmes for child psychiatrists and podiatrists are also being prepared with international collaborations and foreign faculty.

He said the KEMU again attained a distinction for being first choice of the medical students for admission and hopefully the projects and initiatives taken recently would include it in the leading varsities in the region in the coming years.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2019