USM’s medical course gets recognition from Medical Council of India

GEORGE TOWN: Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) is the first university in the country to be recognised by the Medical Council of India (MCI) for its medical studies.

Its vice-chancellor, Professor Dr Asma Ismail, said today the recognition, which was accorded to USM mid last year, had elevated the reputation of the university’s medical graduates internationally.

“It also proves that USM’s medical programme is of an international standard which will make it easier for students to enter the global job market as medical practitioners,” she said at a press conference here.

She said the recognition was among the highlights of the International Medical Programme between USM and the Karnataka Lingayat Education (KLE) Society, a pioneer university in medical education in India, which had been on-going since 2009.

“This recognition is a follow-up of an earlier recognition accorded by the Maldives Medical Council,” she said.

Asma said the joint programme between USM and the KLE Society had also succeeded in securing a bigger intake for USM’s medical degree among students from developing countries.

She said the programme also provided USM with the opportunity to plan for its postgraduate medical degree programme in India.

“This programme is expected to begin before the end of this year,” she said, adding that the USM-KLE International Medical Programme was also recognised by the Malaysian Medical Council and had full accreditation from the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) for five years from 2018.

The five-year-medical programme, she said, was unique as it was offered by USM but fully conducted at its campus in Belgaum, India.

“The programme is conducted by Indian teaching staff, with hospital infrastructure and patients from India, under the supervision, assessment and monitoring of USM and MQA,” she said. - FMT