The Tribhuvan University and its Institute of Medicine (IoM) have locked horns over granting affiliations to new medical colleges, leaving the entire sector in a big mess.

IOM officials have charged TU officials of trying to muscle in new medical colleges without proper planning for hefty commission. Despite strong opposition from the IoM, the university on September 26 published a notice calling for applications for affiliation from colleges who have taken a consent letter, known as the letter of intent (LoI), from the Ministry of Education.

While the announcement has drawn in a lot of interests from perspective medical colleges, the IoM has further toughened its stance and seems set to oppose the TU move saying that the IoM was not consulted prior to the advertisement.

The IoM has written in response to the call for affiliation that it is not a good decision to grant new affiliations at a time when they are having a hard time managing and monitoring the existing medical colleges.

“We will not provide new affiliation,” said a high-level official at the IoM requesting anonymity.

The affiliation row publicly surfaced this year at the 31st annual function of the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital where IoM Dean Dr Prakash Sayami declined on stage the request of Education Minister Madhav Poudel to provide affiliations.

“Due to a human resource crunch, we have not been able to inspect the existing colleges. How can we provide affiliation to new ones?” Dr Sayami had questioned then.

In the past five years, some 15 colleges got the LoIs from the ministry. A college starts building infrastructure after receiving the LoI. In Thursday’s notice, the TU

states that colleges willing to establish themselves in rural areas will get priority while at least Rs 100 million needs to be deposited in the fixed account of the medical college. Also, Rs 50 million has to be provided to the TU for affiliation.

TU sources said the advertisement was for granting affiliation to the medical college of Nepal Police. Many suspect that Kathmandu University may provide affiliation to Birat Medical College, Biratnagar, and Devdaha Medical College, Rupandehi as the BMC was denied affiliation by the IoM last year.

Only the IoM under TU and the KU provide affiliation to private medical schools in Nepal. There are two autonomous academies—the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences and the Patan Academy of Health Sciences, which can run their programmes and provide degrees but cannot grant affiliations. Among the 21 medical colleges including dental colleges in Nepal, eight are affiliated to the IoM.

source:the kathmandu post,29 Sep 2013