NUC Chair clarifies status of Medical PhD, Medicine Fellowship

The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, has made clarification on the controversy between the recently introduced Doctor of Medicine programme and the original Medicine by Fellowship programme, saying one can never replace the other.

He noted that the Doctor of Medicine programme was introduced for an entirely different purpose from the original medicine by fellowship programme.

Rasheed gave this clarification at a meeting with the leadership of the National Postgraduate Medical College (NPMC), led by the President, Professor Akinsanya Osibogun, to his office, Abuja.

He explained that based on current trends, there must be a way to encourage research in clinical sciences by professionals like medical scientists, pathologists, non-clinical dermatologists, non-clinical medical laboratory scientists, biochemists, medical microbiologists and professions that go under the cover of health science to be allowed to make publications from their research capable of bringing about solutions to the revolutionary health issues on health.

He added that there was also the discovery of a strong relationship between PhD and quality services in every sector.

According to him, the researchers should be awarded doctorate degree based on quality publications from research made in any specific core clinical area.

While wishing the president of the college a successful tenure, he assured the team of NUC’s commitment to strengthening the already existing relationship between them,

He commended the president and the college in particular for continuously bridging the gap in the profession in line with trends in order to ensure that those coming behind find a robust health sector that could give them the best skills to operate effectively within the country and internationally.

Rasheed stressed on the need to have a comprehensive picture of the status of medical education in the country, which, he said, had triggered the urgent need for an inspection visit to medical universities by the commission, to ascertain their current state.

He disclosed that all pending medical universities’ committee reports would be looked at by a committee of medical experts and non-medics while the position on the maters as taken by the commission would be communicated to the concerned universities.

This, he said, would go a long way in impacting more positively on medical education in the country.

The Executive Secretary said that just last week he received the provost of the Colleges of Medicine in West Africa and the highlight of their discussion was the new Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standard (CCMAS) and the commission’s resolve to not restrict the MBBS and dental programmes to the 30 percent freedom for innovation given to the other 16 disciplines.