Admission to UDS School of Medical sciences suspended

Accra, July 24, GNA - Government has ordered the temporary suspension of admission of students to the School of Medical and Health Sciences of the University of Development Studies (UDS).

This is to enable the government to hasten efforts to provide resources to the school and implement requirements to meet local and international standards of the national accreditation board, the medical and dental associations and the World Health Organisation, among others. Mr Andrews Awuni, a Deputy Minister of Information, said this at the weekly press briefing of the Ministry of Information to react to reports that the government is about to close down the University for its inability to resource and earn accreditation for the school. "On the contrary, we are working hard to ensure that the resource and logistic challenges that the University is currently facing are overcome in the shortest possible time."

The Deputy Minister explained that since its establishment in 1993, the UDS has been able to obtain accreditation to run humanities courses but had no accreditation for its School of Sciences.

This was due to the lack of facilities for the faculty and its inability to meet standards.

Mr Awuni said it was not until seven years after its establishment that the previous government sent a committee on a verification mission to the school to find out the state of progress in the provision of medical facilities for the faculty.

The committee, together with an accreditation panel, which also visited the school, reported that the school lacked the required physical and academic infrastructure to mount clinical programmes.

It also reported that the school had certain deficiencies at the basic sciences level, which needed to be remedied after three years of its establishment.

The sciences programme began in 1996.

Mr Awuni said based on the findings, the previous government decided in 2000 that the third and fourth year students of the school be transferred to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Ghana Medical School respectively for upgrading and clinical programmes.

The intake so far for the school has been 1996 (11), 1997 (20), 1998 (35), and 1999 (10), 2000 (4), 2001 (14) 2002 (34) students. The Deputy Minister said the government, on assumption of office took very important decisions that included the urgent need to improve the facilities, effect the transfer of the third and fourth year students to UGM and KNUST and get the WHO to assist the school.

So far, some improvement has been achieved on the facilities, though not enough, to meet the standards of the accreditation board, while budgetary allocation to the school has increased.

Among other measures, the GET Fund has released funds to provide a modern science laboratory.

It has also agreed to release funds to build a hostel on condition that the school secures a title to the land.

Mr Awuni said this year, 5.5 billion cedis has also been made available to provide equipment, teaching aids, lecture block facilities and settlement of the fees of the transferred students.

He said, in addition to these problems, is the issue of certification of final year students transferred to UGM and KNUST.

The Vice President also constituted a committee to examine the accreditations and recognition of UDS for the award of medical degrees. He said it was based on their findings that the committee recommended that intake into the School of Medical Health and Sciences should be suspended for 2003-2004 academic period until the re-sourcing has been done to the satisfaction of the accreditation board.

The Deputy Minister noted that it is unfortunate that the recommendation has been twisted and fashioned into a latest political weapon.