IITs Express Interest in Offering Medical Courses

The Council of Indian Institutes of Technology has confirmed that it will be offering medical courses in its colleges even as the Health Ministry expressed its displeasure over the move. The latest proposal from the council of IITs will see all of its colleges offer medicine and biotechnology related courses with foreign faculty to be hired in order to fill the large number of vacancies.

The consent from the council comes even as the Health Ministry wanted IIT colleges to offer just PhD courses limited to collaboration between engineering and medical science.

The council is also looking at a proposal to change its hiring policy which will see the induction of foreign faculty. More than 1400 vacancies are yet to be filled in various colleges though a security clearance is required in order to hire foreign faculty.

At this time, just IIT Kharagpur has expressed a desire to build a medical school, saying there are no hospitals in the area and that one is needed.

Human resource development minister Kapil Sibal said that clearance will have to be sought from the Medical Council of India for any courses related to medicine, “We are making sure that wherever the instruction leads to a degree relating to any branch of medicine, then of course clearances from MCI under the Act will have to be taken,” he added.


Source-Medindia