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Jamia Hamdard: A name that shines in the education sector

For over two decades, Jamia Hamdard remains a sought-after institute for medical education. The deemed university is now expanding its choice of courses.

Jamia Hamdard, a deemed university, is one of India's premier healthcare education providers. It offers degrees and diplomas in medical education (MBBS), Unani medicine, pharmacy, nursing and para-medical sciences.
Says Dr G N Qazi, Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Hamdard University: "The medical college that we started about four years ago - the first batch of our MBBS students will graduate next year - will be offering post-graduate degrees in surgery and medicine. We are drawing out a 10-year programme for the medical college."

According to Dr Qazi, the Hamdard Institute of Medical Science & Research (HIMSR) is hugely popular among Gulf-based NRIs. The institute offers MBBS, BSc degrees in a host of subjects including occupational therapy, physiotherapy, laboratory techniques, emergency and trauma care technology, optometry, medical imaging technology, and operation theatre techniques.
"We have taken a conscious decision to take students only on the basis of the All India Pre-Medical Test," he points out. "We also give opportunities to NRI students to sit for the AIPMTs, which are conducted in the Gulf as well."
HIMSR offers master's degrees in clinical subjects and from next year it will offer MSc degrees in pre-clinical subjects. "We have not lost sight of traditional medicines including Unani and Ayurveda," he adds. "At some point of time, we will create an environment for the two streams to work together as integrated medicine."
Before taking over as vice-chancellor of Jamia Hamdard, Dr Qazi was the Director of Jammu-based Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (which is part of the Indian government's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research). "We had started the process of bringing together modern medicine with traditional ones such as Unani and Ayurveda," he explains.
Jamia Hamdard is spread over a sprawling 120-acre campus in south Delhi, and has about 6,000 students, including about 600 NRI and foreign students. "We have seven faculties and 75 disciplines. We offer programmes from under-graduate levels to PhD," he adds.
While Jamia Hamdard was originally conceived as a seat of higher learning for Unani medicine, Islamic studies, biosciences, pharmacy and nursing, it has now emerged as an outstanding institution of higher learning with distinct and focused academic programmes. Dr Qazi says the non-profit university will also offer liberal arts courses in the coming years.
Jamia Hamdard has about 8,000 students studying through its distance education programme as well.
Two of the most prominent faculties at the university are pharmacy and nursing. "Pharmacy education has been the focus of this university right since inception," he says.
Hakeem Abdul Hameed had established the Hamdard College of Pharmacy in 1972. Ten years later, he had set up the Institute of History of Medicine and Medical Research. In 1963, he along with friends and associates set up the Indian Institute of Islamic Studies to promote the study of Islamic culture and civilisation and its contribution to Indian society and culture.
All the various constituent educational units were brought together under the umbrella of Jamia Hamdard deemed university in 1989.
Dr Qazi notes that the faculty of pharmacy also focuses on research and at any given time nearly 250 students are pursuing PhD degrees. The university has about 600 PhD scholars in various faculties. Dr Qazi, who is also the Chairman of the Indian government's Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Research Programme, points out that the future lies in pharmaceutical research, especially in areas such as bio-similars and nano technology. The university also offers a BPharm (Unani) degree as well.
Referring to the nursing faculty, it has tied up with the University of Liverpool, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the government of India to set up a training centre for nurses in midwifery. The problem of high maternal mortality rates (MMR) is endemic in many parts of India, especially in the backward regions such as Bihar and Jharkhand.
"Nurses in batches of 15 to 20 come for training to our campus every week," he explains. "We focus on midwifery and also provide skills in pre-natal and neo-natal care." The nurses go back and train hundreds of other nurses in the villages and help in bringing down the MMR.
Besides, nurses trained at the university are also able to get good jobs, both in India and abroad, especially in the Gulf, the US and Europe.
"We need teachers in nursing, para-medicine, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and a whole lot of other subjects," says Dr Qazi. "Our programmes train the students and encourage them to take up teaching jobs. But it is difficult to retain them." Most of them get jobs abroad after a few years, as global demand for nurses and para-medical staff is huge.