Students can get foreign degrees by studying in HSA

ISLAMABAD: Following agreements with various European and Canadian universities, students of Health Services Academy (HSA) can now acquire foreign degrees by studying at the HSA, which is soon going to be transformed into Pakistan’s National University of Public Health Sciences (NUPHS), officials said on Tuesday.

“HSA has now entered into agreements with University of Manitoba, Canada and the University of Grenada, Spain (the first Muslim University in Europe) for offering joint programmes in the area of public health.

Following these agreements and future collaborations with reputed international varsities, Pakistani students would be able to acquire foreign universities’ degrees by studying at HSA in the capital”, Vice Chancellor HSA Dr Shahzad Ali Khan told the 12th Annual Public Health Conference.

On the occasion, the Surgeon General of Pakistan Army Lt. General Nigar Johar Khan inaugurated the newly established department of Public Health Law, the first of its kind at any public varsity of Pakistan, which would be headed by world-renowned medical jurist Prof. Dr Syed Shoaib Hussain Shah, who holds a PhD in human genetics and has board certification and fellowship in forensic medicine from the United States.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the 12th Annual Public Health Conference, Dr. Shahzad Ali Khan announced that in order to promote public health in the country, Public Health Association of Pakistan (PHAP) and Pakistan Society of Public Health (PSPH) have been constituted, saying the Surgeon General of Pakistan Army and Colonel Commandant of Army Medical Corps became the first member of the public health association of Pakistan.

He maintained that now 800 students from entire Pakistan and abroad were studying public health at HSA, of which over 60-70 percent students were getting scholarships, adding that most brilliant students were studying free of charge at the public health varsity while other students performing satisfactorily were also getting partial scholarships.

“HSA only gets 5 percent funding from the government but it encourages all meritorious and deserving students to get education whether they can afford or not”, he said and added that HSA was collaborating with various local and international organisations for conducting local research to find out solutions of health problems facing people of Pakistan.

Surgeon General Pakistan Army Lt. General Nigar Johar Khan, while addressing the 12th public health conference, said reproductive health and well-being of women in Pakistan was the most important public health issue in Pakistan where maternal mortality stands at 186 per 100,000 live births, which is not only alarming but very depressing.

“Children born without mothers would have to face hardships of life from the beginning of life including poor health. The scary MMR is the result of lack of education, weak healthcare system compounded by poverty, poor nutrition and sanitation and poor access to healthcare”, she said and lauded the HSA leadership for regularly holding conferences, workshops and trainings as helping out health department and institutions in dealing with emerging health challenges.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) country representative to Pakistan, Dr Bakhtior Kadirov said national mortality level in Pakistan is comparable to Bangladesh which is slightly lower than Pakistan at 173/100,000 live births, Balochistan is at the level of Sudan, and Sindh is comparable to Zambia. Punjab, KP and GB are at the level of Cambodia while AJK is at the level of South Africa.