No more test waiver for foreign students: PMDC

No more test waiver for foreign students: PMDC
Islamabad, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has decided not to extend exemption to students of some friendly states from the entry test or Scholastic Aptitude Test Part-II (SAT-II) examination for admission to local government-run medical colleges.

Unlike last year when 63 students from Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen and Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir were exempted from entrance test/SAT-II examination in the Punjab, foreigners will have to clear the prescribed examination for admission to medical and dental educational institutions this year.

"Our executive committee has decided that no waiver of entry test, SAT-II, IELTS or TOEFL will be given to foreign students for current session (2011-12). In future, all such students intending to get admission to medical colleges in Pakistan under Pakistan Technical Assistance Programme will have to appear in the entry test or clear SAT-II test," PMDC Registrar Dr. Ahmed Nadeem Akbar told this scribe here on Thursday.

According to Dr. Akbar, foreign students named under the Pakistan Technical Assistant Programme last year were exempted from entry test or SAT-11 examination at the request of the Foreign Office and Economic Affairs Division.

Soon after doing the favour to students from friendly states, PMDC came under fire from medical organisations, which believed relaxation of rules would hit the country's education standards and international opinion about it hard.

The Punjab government, too, opposed the PMDC move but later agreed, though reluctantly, to let foreign students in question continue with their studies in local medical colleges. It told PMDC in plain words that the nod shouldn't be quoted as a precedent in future.

Distinction
Islamabad: The Cornell University, one of the 8 Ivy League universities, awarded a PhD degree to Basit Riaz Sheikh, a Pakistani student, in the field of Electrical and Computer Engineering, says a press release issued here Thursday.

The Cornell University held its annual commencement ceremony to recognise and honour its graduates and advanced degree scholars for May and August 2011 in the ceremony attended by hundreds of scholars from different departments and thousands of people from all walks of life.

Basit is the only Pakistani to receive a PhD degree from Cornell University this year. It may be recalled that previously Basit won the best paper award at the IEEE international symposium on asynchronous circuits and systems held at Grenoble, France for his novel design of an energy efficient high throughput asynchronous floating-point unit. Basit's PhD was fully sponsored by Cornell University and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Basit Riaz Sheikh is a son of former, Additional Director General FIA, Ahmad Riaz Sheikh and MPA Shabina Riaz.