PMDC to review admission test policy today

CJP likely to chair meeting of the newly constituted central executive council

ISLAMABAD: The regulator of medical education is planning on introducing new regulations for admissions to the government, as well as private medical colleges in the country, seeking to grant additional weight to those who have completed 12 years rather than just base it off the results secured in the standardised entry tests.

When the new central executive council of the Pakistan Medical Dental Council meets on Monday, which the Chief Justice of Pakistan is also expected to attend, it is likely to take up the new regulations.



At the moment, private medical colleges can grant admission to medical students as per the rules they set since the last central admission policy introduced by the PMDC was voided by the court.

The 2016 admission regulations by the PMDC had been struck down by the Supreme Court and in January this year. The court had also disbanded its council, constituting an ad hoc council to run affairs of the regulator of medical education which would be chaired by a Justice (retd) Mian Shakirullah Jan. Private medical and dental colleges had challenged the PMDC set up, claiming that it was illegal and functioning unlawfully because it was created under the PMDC (Amendment) Ordinance 2015. The law, they argued, had lapsed on April 25, 2016.

But the real issue, some PMDC officials claim, was the central admission regulations introduced by the council.

They claimed that in the past five years, four councils have been created because the private schools do not want the council to introduce and a test-based admission system for medical universities.

They pointed out that the latest challenge in the court came as a new policy on admissions, house jobs and internship regulations were introduced and another policy for 2018 was in the works which would further regulate the admission system in private medical colleges. The new regulations propose a central admission policy whereby private colleges are suggested to accord greater weight to the scores obtained in pre-medical education and asserts to minimize the role of entry tests.



The regulations will also diminish the role of academies charging millions from students to prepare them for the entry tests. Moreover, the fee formula at medical institutions had already been fixed by the supreme court in March, according to which tuition fee for a medical student per year has been capped at Rs850,000.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2018.