56 New doctors graduate from UCCSMS
The University of Cape Coast School of Medical Sciences (UCCSMS) has held its 4th oath swearing and induction ceremony for 56 new doctors with a call on the university to review the tuition fee at the UCCSMS to make the medical school accessible to more students.
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The UCCSMS operates on a full fee-paying basis system, and currently, first-year students pay about GH¢11,000 a year.
The ceremony saw 32 females and 24 male doctors being inducted into the Medical and Dental Council.
The Minister of Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman, in an address read on her behalf by the Executive Secretary of the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), Professor Mohammed Salifu, noted that “while we understand the nuances and the motivation for doing so, we wish to urge the university authorities to look at the financing model again and to make some adjustments to allow poor, needy candidates to access the course.”
Equity and inclusiveness
She said issues of equity and inclusiveness were crucial pillars on which the policies for providing education in the country were established and recommended that those should reflect in educational institutions.
She also commended the UCC for exceeding expectations for gender parity considerations, stressing, “This is the very first time we are witnessing more than two-thirds of the graduands being females in a science and technology-driven programme and we wish to commend you for this achievement.”
Prof. Opoku Agyeman described the UCCSMS training model as a unique one designed to train competent medical personnel who were innovative and well-grounded to deal with the health issues of society, and expressed the hope that they would make a huge difference in health service delivery.
She acknowledged the massive investment in infrastructure and training in the various institutions of higher education, saying it was a testimony of the ministry’s commitment to ensuring excellence, especially in the training of medical doctors, and called on the various teaching hospitals to support the training of the doctors.
She said it was her expectation that they would give their best and urged the new doctors to tap the innovative skills and deliver quality services wherever they would be posted.
Excellence
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. D. D. Kuupole, said products of the UCCSMS continued to prove themselves worthy of the training they had received considering the positive reports the university was receiving from their various places of work.
He advised the fresh doctors to be diligent and work hard to excel and asked them not to allow money and material things to influence them in their duties.
He Chairman of the Governing Council them to learn continuously to excel and called for the expansion of the school’s infrastructure to enable the school to increase its intake.
The Chancellor of the university, Nana Sam Brew Butler, advised the students to adopt values of honesty, teamwork, patience, humility and hard work to excel.