NTR Health University aims for MCI approval for Regional Teacher Training Centres

Vijayawada: The Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences (NTRUHS) is trying hard to get the Medical Council of India (MCI) to give approval for setting up of Regional Teacher Training Centres (RTTCs) at Vijayawada and Tirupati to improve the quality of teaching and bring it at par with modern trends.

This was announced at a press conference here last week, by Vice-Chancellor C. Venkateswara Rao, who said the RTTCs were essential to introduce Competency-based Medical Education System (CBMES) which he was hopeful would be cleared by the MCI next year. The stress laid by CBMES would be on the development of competencies expected from medical graduates instead of the conventional time-bound examinations approach.

A foundation course will also be initiated for newly-admitted students to improve their communications skills and behavioral patterns.

According to Dr. Rao, a research fund with an initial corpus of Rs. 50 lakh has also been introduced by the NTRUHS to support the research projects of students and teachers. Workshops to support this will also be conducted by experts periodically. Central monitoring by varsity officials would be done with the help of travel agents in accordance with arrangements made with the MCI. Internal assessment examinations would be the same in all colleges.

The question papers would be set and distributed by the NTRUH, as is the case in the final examinations.

Dr. Rao further informed that certificates with holograms would be issued to medical graduates from this year.

Thesis by postgraduates is to be submitted online with the counter signatures of the principal after self-attestation by students of plagiarism-free certificates.

The various new courses being offered by NTRUHS with a B.Sc are in paramedical subjects, postdoctoral fellowships and certificate programs. Teacher Identification Numbers are also going to be handed over to the faculty members. The National Informatics Centre will be looking after the administrative work of the NTRUHS added the Vice Chancellor to the Hindu.