Academic cooperation: Medical schools asked for proposals on Ukraine’s offer

Ukraine’s state medical university has offered a bilateral cooperation agreement

LAHORE: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has written a letter to all 18 medical universities in the country seeking “workable proposals for developing academic cooperation with the Dnipropetrovsk Medical Academy of the Ukrainian Health Ministry”, The Express Tribune has learnt.

A copy of the HEC letter has also been forwarded to the Pakistani Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The letter followed Ukrainian government’s offer of bilateral academic cooperation in the field of medicine through a letter sent to the Pakistani Embassy in Ukraine.

The letter contains details about the academy and courses offered at undergraduate and postgraduate level degree programmes at the academy. “The academy was founded on September 15, 1916. The DMA is now one of the oldest and prominent medical education institutions in Ukraine. It is a public higher education institution of the 4th (the highest) accreditation level. The academy trains specialists at three levels: paramedical, undergraduate, and postgraduate,” it reads.

The letter says that at the undergraduate level, the academy offers specialisation training in general medicine, pediatrics, medical-preventive care, stomatology, clinical pharmacy and pharmacy. The post graduate education at the academy features master’s degree courses in 30 specialties, internships in 30 specialties, PhD courses in 29 specialties and clinical residency in 37 specialties, it says.

The letter says that the Academy has seven faculties and 57 departments. It says that the number of students had enrolled in various academic programmes at Academy is 11,386 students. The staff strength at the Academy is 1,539, including 697 lecturers.

The letter says that teaching methodology used at the Academy is in accordance the Bologna process (series of agreements among European countries to ensure comparability in standards and quality of higher education qualifications).

An official at a medical university in the province told The Express Tribune that earlier Cuba had given scholarships for medical education to Pakistani students. He said on their return to the country after successful completion of their degrees, the scholarship holders had to clear a test conducted by the National Examination Board (NEB). The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council requires graduates with foreign degrees to pass the test to start medical practice in the country. The official said that before making any recommendations on the offer his university would approach the HEC to clarify the terms of bilateral cooperation with the DMA.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2016.