Committee formed to manage woes of medical education in Pakistan

A five-member delegation was also formed to resolve the matter with Saudi authorities.

A committee has been established to address emerging challenges in medical education, including undergraduate and graduate education, clinical certification, health research and research oriented education, adoption of international standards, and addressing equivalence and certification issues in other countries.

The decision to form the committee was taken at a meeting of the heads of key health education institutions in the country including Higher Education Commission Chairman Dr Tariq Banuri. The committee will be addressing key issues plaguing the medical education sector in the country, including undergraduate education, graduate education, clinical certification, health research and research oriented education, adoption of international standards, and addressing equivalence and certification issues in other countries.

The committee will be headed by the HEC chairman, and will include representatives of the Ministry of Health, PMDC, CPSP, and universities providing medical education.

The meeting took note of the recent de-recognition of some Pakistani medical degrees by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and constituted a five-member delegation to resolve the matter with Saudi authorities. The delegation will comprise of representatives of the medical universities in addition to HEC.

It was discussed that recently there were instances in which Pakistanis having MD/ MS degrees have been removed from their services and were asked to leave Saudi Arabia. It was noted that although few Pakistani medical universities have already shared their syllabi, monitoring and evaluation system and other documents with relevant authorities, however, there is a need to take up this issue collectively.

The meeting also reviewed the experience of Pakistani students studying in medical colleges in other countries and the current additional requirements for them when they return to Pakistan.