Colleges warned against offering unrecognised postgraduate courses

Islamabad :The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has warned the degree-awarding institutions against offering unrecognised postgraduate programmes.

PMDC President Prof Shabir Lehri told reporters here on Friday that the Council had advised doctors in their own interest that before going for admission to postgraduate medical and dental programmes, they should ascertain that the postgraduate medical and dental degrees or diplomas offered by the institutions were recognised and were included in PMDC Schedule III.

He said a number of medical and dental colleges had been offering postgraduate courses despite the fact that they had not been mandated to offer them. Prof Lehri added that students, before getting admission to a postgraduate course, should confirm that the institutions and courses were recognised because the council would not accept their degrees in unrecognised programme or unrecognised institution like FCPS, MS, MD, MPhil, PhD and MPH.

He said the PMDC had written letters to all medical and dental degree-awarding institutions on directions of the Council and had advised doctors to refrain admission to such unrecognised programmes.

“It is in the interest of the students to confirm whether colleges, which offer courses or where they are going to get admission, are recognised or not. All the information regarding the institutions and the courses they offer is available on the website of the council,” he said.

He said advertising any unrecognised course was a clear violation of law and the head of the institution could face imprisonment from one year to five years and fine which can be from Rs5 million to Rs10 million.

He added that those institutions who will offer the unrecognised courses could be closed and even their recognised courses could be banned because they use them as a cover and offer unrecognised courses.