Following several Stakeholders’ meetings in the last two years and as a prelude to the formal release of the New Minimum Academic Benchmark (2015), proprietors of Medical and Dental Schools in Nigeria (both current and prospective) are requested to note the following implementing steps including relevant adjustments relating to accreditation of Medical/Dental Schools. 1.From 1st September 2015, both current and prospective proprietors of Medical and Dental Schools should: a. Write a letter to the Executive Secretary stating their intent and provide relevant information as available. b. On receipt, (if NUC has no obvious reasons to disqualify the application), they would be sent a copy of the BMAS for MBBS/BDS and advised firmly to ensure that they are strictly complied with. c. The setting up of medical schools is not an emergency exercise. To this end, prospective proprietors must own and have in place (prior to a request for a Resource Verification), a fully functional and well run tertiary type hospital. In the circumstance of the above not being in place, consideration for an affiliation with a tertiary government-owned institution may be given only when the said university owns a medical institution fully functional with a minimum of 150 beds and a rural health medical unit. (See Appendix 4 of the BMAS). d. A Pre-clinical Accreditation would be expected to take place within two years of a positive Resource Verification. Students can only sit for the second MBBS professional examination (Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry) when they have a successful preclinical accreditation. The preclinical accreditation would, amongst others, concentrate largely on the Department of Anatomy, Biochemistry, Physiology, Pathology and Pharmacology and to a lesser extent, Community Health. All evaluated departments must have the minimum requirements in terms of academic staff, non academic staff and laboratory facilities. (See Appendix 3 of the BMAS) e. The Commission has now approved a Clinical Accreditation expected to take place within twelve months of a successful preclinical accreditation. Subsequent to that, a reaccreditation exercise will take place every five years. 2. With respect to established medical schools, (and irrespective of their accreditation status), it should be noted that only institutions that (by the deadline of March 20th,2016) have requested and obtained formal approval from the National Universities Commission for a re-evaluation based on the following considerations would be allowed to admit students into the MBBS/BDS programmes from the 2016/2017 academic year:
a. All Medical and Dental schools must have an approved, and appropriately utilized, Clinical Skills/Simulation centre. b. Ensure strict adherence to the proper use of the course system for all approved programmes in Nigerian Universities. The implication of the above is that a particular programme (subject) is taught not only broken into cluster units of 1-4 but also have the components of university supervised examinations. For clarity, current end of posting examinations (practiced by some medical/dental schools) that neither have units allocated nor follow the standards of a University examination, do not conform to the Minimum Academic Standards as established by the National Universities Commission. c. Universities are strongly urged to immediately review their current methods of teaching medical and dental students to include more tutorials, self study group teaching, use of IT in the delivery of courses and simulation/competency based evaluations that must be signed by a lecturer not below the status of a senior lecturer. It must be noted that the confirmation of a successful simulation/competency based evaluation should be a mandatory requirement before the students are eligible to sit for the various professional/sessional examinations 3. Proprietors are urged to note the Essential Component changes of the new curriculum expected to be in use from the 2016/2017 academic session. Details of these changes are available in the New Minimum Academic standards booklet and at the National Universities Commission website. (www.nuc.edu.ng.) Major components include the following: (a) The approval of three alternative models viz; i. A seven year MBBS/BDS programme that encompass a mandatory seamless four-year acquisition of the B.Sc. (Basic Medical Science) with interest in either Anatomy/Physiology/Biochemistry. At the end of seven years, students would have acquired the Bachelor of Basic Medical Science, Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees. In case of the dental programmes, the students would have acquired a degree in Basic Dental Science and Bachelor of Dental Surgery. ii. In order to allow for career change for interested non-medical health professionals, the Commission has also approved a four year programme leading to MBBS/BDS for interested and qualified graduates of Nursing, Pharmacology, Physiotherapy, Image Science, Paramedics, Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology. It must be noted for such to be considered for admission they must have at the WAEC/NECO levels minimum credit scores in Mathematics, English, Physics, Chemistry and Biology at one sitting, prior to the admissions for their first degrees. They must also have a good CGPA. iii. Admission into universities based on the current six year programme would be allowed to continue as suitable alternative based on the discretion of the University. iv. It should be noted and emphasized that all the above degrees have the Bachelor appellation as they remain undergraduate programmes. (b) Specific periods of posting to the department of Family Medicine. The obvious implication here is that, the Universities should create the Department of Family Medicine following their due process. (c) Redesignation of the Department of Pharmacology to the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics. The department is now expected to provide relevant basic clinical teaching and conduct relevant professional examination in Pharmacology. They will also be expected to provide relevant clinical teaching in Therapeutics. All Universities should set in motion the machinery to achieve the above. 4. In view of the above essential component changes of the new curriculum, the Commission will be organising a National training for Medical teachers in Nigerian Universities. Details of the training would be made available shortly. 5. Interested stakeholders are invited to send comments/suggestions on the above to: The Executive Secretary, NUC, okojie_julius@yahoo.com and copy to chiedu.mafiana@gmail.com
MANAGEMENT
www.nuc.edu.ng
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