Pvt sector-academia interface needed: VC

MUMBAI, April 14: The Vice Chancellor of Mumbai University, Dr Snehalata Deshmukh, has called for greater private sector participation in managing the proposed University of Health Sciences at Nashik. Inaugurating a seminar organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad at the varsity8217;s convocation hall, Deshmukh stressed the need for interaction between academicians and industry. Before starting the university, authorities should gather information on the experiences in other states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, where health universities are already in place, she said. Calling for changes in the curriculum in medical colleges, Deshmukh said AIDS should be included as a subject of study in medical colleges.

In his address, Dr Shriram Sarwadkar, head of the Rashyashastra department at Osmanabad Ayurvedic College, said research and developmental activities should be given a boost, as medical institutions were merely functioning as examination conducting bodies.

However, Dean of Facultyof Medicine Sciences University of Mumbai, Dr S N Deshmukh, struck a dissenting note, saying the setting up of the university was economically unviables due to the ongoing economic slump. He along with 18 faculty members had mentioned in a letter to the Vice Chancellor that the setting up of a new health university would be the starting point for the setting up of a new governing body, on the lines of the Medical Council of India. Having another governing body at the state level would lead to duplication, he said.