The Kuwait University Council is heading to approve the recommendation of the committee concerned with including the College of Public Health in the College of Allied Medical Sciences, based on a number of reasons, the most important of which is the university’s academic interest, the enhancement of its scientific status, and the elimination of administrative slack.
On the other hand, the University’s Faculty Association rejects this move, and considers that the college represents a valuable addition to the Colleges of the Center for Medical Sciences, and therefore it is better to remain separate and not be included in the College of Allied Medical Sciences, reports a local Arabic daily.
Academic sources at Kuwait University confirmed that “the decision to annex will have great benefits for the university, including stopping the waste of public money and controlling the teaching process in the college due to the lack of students and administrators, as it faces a severe shortage of national cadres.
The sources gave three main reasons for the annexation, which are summed up in the fact that “the number of faculty and students is few, and the cost of the student is high, reaching about 10 thousand dinars per year, and the college has no place in the Shaddadiya site which is currently being handled by another center on a temporary basis.
Noting that “there are some beneficiaries of the current situation of the college,” the sources confirmed that “the decision to annex will not affect the teaching process, and will be in the interest of the university and students, and that there are similar specializations between the College of Public Health and the College of Allied Medical Sciences, and according to the decision the five departments will included in the College of Allied Medical Sciences, and the university is moving to implement the recommendation because of its interest in the teaching process.”
Meanwhile, the President of the Association of Faculty Members at Kuwait University, Dr. Shamlan Daoud Al-Qana’i, was surprised by “the silence of the university administration about the demands rejecting the recommendation of the committee formed by the Acting Vice President for Medical Sciences regarding the inclusion of the College of Public Health in the College of Allied Sciences, a decision that was based on weak and ill-considered arguments.”
“It is unfortunate,” Al-Qena’i said, “that the university administration did not respond to this vital and important file, which faces wide academic and scientific rejection by colleagues.
“The decision to form the committee that made recommendations to include the college is based on improper procedures because the opinion of the specialized faculty members, who are the stakeholders, was not taken,” considering that this step “reduces the importance of the College of Public Health, and we do not know on what basis the recommendation came to include it in the college,” he added.
He went on to say, “We have approached the university administration with a request for a quick and urgent interview, but we have not received any response so far, and we deplore such dealing with a file that requires a quick decision in the public interest.”
Al-Qena’i stressed that “there are upcoming steps and moves against this decision, which we will reveal in due course,” praising “the position of all female colleagues and colleagues in their solidarity in rejecting such trends and practices.”
He pointed out that “the College of Public Health was established by an Amiri Decree in 2013, and it consists of 5 academic scientific departments, comprising a group of distinguished academics, scientists and researchers who have made clear contributions and left their prints in their fields in the medical and health sectors.
The ‘Inclusion Committee’ is chaired by the Vice President of the University for Medical Sciences, Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan, and includes in its membership Dr. Akram Sabtieh and Dr. Muhammad Al-Khamis, and the administrative directors Abdullah Al-Mutairi and Muhammad Malallah.
Read Today's News TODAY... on our Telegram Channel click here to join and receive all the latest updates t.me/thetimeskuwait
