Punjab medical colleges affiliation with UHS

Punjab medical colleges affiliation with UHS
Lahore: Trasnitions are never easy. The hiccups that remain in the half-decade long process of affiliating Punjab's medical colleges with the University of Health Sciences show how such efforts have to be sustained. The students of the Fatima Jinnah Medical College, a women-only institution in Lahore, are protesting daily against their institution's affiliation with the university.

They say that when they enrolled, they did so because they wanted to get their degree from the University of Punjab with which their college was then affiliated and that the college should not be affiliated with the University of Health Sciences, a process that has yet to be completed.

This argument is discriminatory if not implausible. All other medical colleges in Punjab, public and private, are already affiliated with the University of Health Sciences. How can the students of a lone college hold out without being seen as 'special'?

This, however, does not absolve the education authorities of blame. They created false hopes among the students that the Fatima Jinnah Medical College would become a university instead of having to change its affiliation. This could not come about because of administrative and financial constraints but it kept the college away from the affiliation process.

The officials also failed to convince the students that the changed affiliation would not hamper the international recognition of their degrees.

The result? The University of Punjab is maintaining a complete examination system for medical education for a single college. Now the issue is no longer under the education department's jurisdiction.

The Lahore High Court has taken suo motu notice of the protests and the court is expected to resolve the issue sooner rather than later. One hopes that it has also been noted that the provincial government has failed to successfully handle an issue that is minor compared to other challenges. Dawn