UHS endorses important reforms

LAHORE:The 191st meeting of the Advanced Studies and Research Board of the University of Health Sciences (UHS) was held on Thursday under the chairmanship of Vice-Chancellor Prof Ahsan Waheed Rathore.

In the meeting important reforms were endorsed in MS/MD/MDS Level-III post-graduate programmes. It was decided in the meeting that there will be due representation of MS/MD/MDS faculty in Specialty Advisory Committees. Level-III exams will be held twice a year in April and October. No examination will be conducted in any month other than these two months. Additionally, the schedule of mandatory workshops for students will be notified at the beginning of the programme. The theory exam result will be announced within a week while the clinical exam result will be issued on the same day. It was decided in the meeting that a centre for theory and clinical examinations will be set up at UHS. The board decided that two foreign observers will be invited to monitor the examinations of Level-III programmes. These foreign observers will be nominated by the medical regulatory authority of the respective country. UHS Vice-Chancellor Professor Ahsan Waheed Rathore directed the officers concerned to start work on reforms immediately. The MS/MD/MDS Reform Committee will also be reconstituted for this purpose. In the meeting, thesis reports of 25 post-graduate students were reviewed and research synopses of MD, MS, MDS, MPhil, and MHPE students were approved. Panels of international and national examiners were also approved for thesis assessment of Ph.D. students. The board recommended the award of PhD in Microbiology to Dr Umaira Ahsan based on her thesis defense reports. The members also approved the structure of a Certificate in Medico-Legal Exam course for medical officers of Punjab. The certificate course will be of a one-month duration and a batch will have 40 participants. The course will be sponsored by the Punjab govt. The first draft of the new regulations of the semester-based MPhil programme was also presented in the meeting.