Hamdard University MBBS
JAMIA HAMDARD (Hamdard University) has plans to offer a MBBS programme from the next academic session. The university is on a mission of complete overhaul of the existing system under which it plans to start a new MBBS programme, extend the hospital’s current facilities, offer an MSc in clinical research and also start faculty development programmes. “We have formulated a proposal to start the MBBS programme. By the end of this month we plan to take an approval from the Delhi government and soon after from the Medical Council of India (MCI). Though there is uncertainty about the duration of MCI’s existence we hope that the new administration will be cooperative in accepting our proposal,” informed GN Qazi, vice-chancellor, Hamdard University. The university will start recruitment of faculty for the MBBS course from this month onwards. “Any university that plans to start a MBBS course needs to have its own undergraduate teaching hospital. The hospital needs to have a minimum of 300 beds. The University had its own Majidi hospital but there were only 150 beds. We have already extended the infrastructure and added 200 more beds. The hospital will not only serve as a training centre after its expansion but will also absorb student of various programmes like nursing, physiotherapy etc in our hospital,” he informed. In so far as the curriculum of the MBBS is concerned, Qazi said, that the university would adhere to the minimum guidelines set by MCI. “However, Hamdard university’s focus is on the Indian system of medicine and we would introduce elements of this system in our MBBS course, which will remain a unique feature,” he said. Qazi said that at the undergraduate level there would be 100 seats to begin with. “We will gradually introduce postgraduate programmes in medicine in the next five years and add at least 1000 beds to the hospital,” said Qazi. The university has also started clinical research programme which is the first of its kind in India. “With domestic pharma industry surging ahead in India, global pharma moving more and more clinical trials to their Indian subsidiaries, and home grown contract research organisations (CROs) growing day by day, the demand for clinical research professionals is growing exponentially. Hamdard University offers an MSc degree in clinical research unlike other institutes offering a postgraduate diploma. This is a unique programme where students are provided an opportunity to get hands-on training in a leading clinical research organisation. Clinical training is real-time and comprises almost 50% of the curriculum,” Qazi said. The university has tied up with Ranbaxy Laboratory Ltd, Max Health Care Institute Ltd and other leading clinical research organisations for practical training of the students, he informed.
TOI
