Paramedical Students Take University Pledge on Orientation Day

The new batch of paramedical students at King George’s Medical University recently took the university pledge on their orientation day on October 22. The next batch is likely to be larger, with at least 40 more seats up for grabs in the first phase of the paramedical department’s expansion. A new academic building complete with a hostel solely for new bachelors courses for paramedical sciences is set to be ready to take admissions by 2025. The land behind Jubilee College will be utilized to start a college and hostel for bachelors courses in paramedical sciences, and a hostel for the newly inducted student body as well,” said Vice-Chancellor of KGMU Dr. Soniya Nityanand. She further said, “We recognize the importance of paramedical training and have wanted to start courses at KGMU for a long time.” “At the new academic campus we will teach bachelors courses for all the courses that we were only having diploma courses for,” she said. “KGMU is a tertiary care centre, and as such we ought to have bachelors courses,” said the Dean of Faculty of Paramedical Sciences, Dr. Anil Nishchal. “But before we start bachelors courses, we first need the hostel premises to be complete,” he said. “By 2025, we are looking at commencing at least three of the bachelors courses, namely bachelors in physiotherapy, optometry and medical laboratory sciences, with 10 seats each in the first two, and 20 in the latter.” Dr. Nishchal said that as of now, the university has 14 running diploma courses and one BSc course in the paramedical sciences department, including diplomas in sanitation, for x-ray technician, dialysis technician, among others. However, with a total of 628 seats across the department, 11 of these 15 courses have no more than 38 seats. The BSc in radiotherapy and the diploma in anesthesia and critical care technician have even fewer seats, with 5 and 30 respectively, and only the diplomas for x-ray technicians and lab technicians have more with 75 and 100 seats, respectively. “By the following year, we are hoping to open more bachelors courses, hire more teachers, and open up more seats for students,” he said. “There are no government-sanctioned posts for the paramedical sciences department, which means that the teachers’ salaries come from students’ fees. We are also attempting to get sanctioned full-time teaching positions for our department, so that we can recruit more experienced teachers who can devote all their time to the students.”