Antony Bugembe and Joel Ojwang
3 August 2008
Kampala — The International Health Sciences University has officially started operations with the installation of Justice Julia Sebutinde and Prof. Deidre Carabine as chancellor and vice-chancellor respectively. The installation took place on Saturday at the International Hospital Kampala, where the university is located.
The university obtained a provisional licence in March and the pioneer students start lectures on September 1.
Dr. Ian Clarke, the chairman of the board of directors of the International Medical Group, said the institution aims at equipping health professionals with more skills.
The non-residential university has two faculties, the Institute of Health Policy and Management and the School of Nursing.
It will offer health science certificates, diplomas and postgraduate degree programmes on full and part time basis.
Carabine said: "We hope that by providing health related tertiary education, we will be able to make a significant difference in the way healthcare is provided for Uganda."
She added that consultations with all stakeholders in the health field would continue to ensure that appropriate training programmes are introduced.
Dr. Moses Galukande, the council chairman, said the university would use the latest technology to refresh health education in Uganda.
"This will enable our products to adapt and cope with health realities on the ground, especially in rural areas."
Galukande said four million additional health workers were needed to fill the gap in sub-Saharan Africa.
"An adequate health workforce should have at least 2.3 well-trained healthcare providers available per 1,000 people reaching out to at least 80% of the population," he said, adding that Uganda's health workforce was at 0.8 well trained workers per 1,000 people.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 New Vision. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
