LARKANA, Feb 3: As required by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), the Chandka Medical College (CMC) administration has submitted an extensive plan to the commission, justifying upgradation of the college into university.

The plan was also sent to the Sindh secretary of services, general administration and coordination, said CMC Principal Professor Sikandar Shaikh while talking to this correspondent.

The academic council of the CMC, in the light of an announcement made by President Pervez Musharraf on February 28 last year while laying the foundation stone of a bridge over River Indus connecting Larkana and Khairpur districts, had worked out the feasibility of the upgradation of the institution, he said.

The principal said that the CMC met all the requirements of a medical university.

A check list the HEC was interested in, consisting of 22 items ranging from the size of tangible assets to teaching faculty and other services, had been sent to the commission, he said.

The standard of assets as required by the HEC was Rs100 million whereas the CMC had over Rs1000 million assets, the professor said. The minimum requirement for a university was four departments but the CMC had 29 departments, he added.

The HEC criteria was 30 full time teachers and two PhD degree holders whereas the CMC had 118 faculty members on the roll, the professor said.

A library of a university should have, according to the HEC criteria, 15,000 books from major international publishers in the relevant field but the CMC’s library had 100,755 books covering almost all the medical sciences-related subjects, he said, adding that the library had subscription of 20 international journals while the requirement was 15 journals.

The president had said that the CMC should be upgraded by the Sindh government while the federal government would extend assistance if required.

The CMC has a vast campus stretched over 932 kanals with 29 departments among them seven on the basic side, Professor Shaikh said. Work on a full-fledged dental college, adjacent to the CMC, at a cost of Rs94.212 million was in full swing, he said and added that a batch of 50 students would get admission to it every year.

The CMC was attached with a 1,250-bed hospital and had eight hostels and the regional centre of College and Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan for post-graduate students, he said.

He said that shortage of senior faculty was the problem with every medical college in public sector and it would easily be overcome if the CMC was given a degree awarding status.

The Sindh government had agreed in principle to surrender all the sanctioned posts with Sindh Public Service Commission for the recruitment, sources said.

A summery would be moved to the caretaker Sindh chief minister with a request to accord permission to spend block allocation of Rs275.00 million kept in the current budget for medical institutions and hospitals, sources said.