Nightingale Medical College's approval cancelled

The government has cancelled approval of the Nightingale Medical College at Ashulia on the ground of non-compliance of certain terms and conditions, said a high official of the health and family welfare ministry yesterday.
It also decided to migrate its 165 students to other private medical colleges from this academic session, said the official.
The government has cancelled the permission, as the college authorities did not establish hospital, which is mandatory and even it has not required number of teachers and adequate lab facilities. Irregularities have also been found in college management board, said Prof Khandaker M Shefayet Ullah, director (medical education) of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The college also has violated the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council Act.
As per the Guildlines for Establishing Private Medical College and BMDC act, a private medical college has to run a general or specialised hospital and the ratio for students' seats and bed should be 1:5, which implies that the 50-seated Nightingale medical college had to run a 250-bed hospital but the authorities did not follow it, sources said.
“For the sake of ensuring quality medical education, we have cancelled approval of the college and took initiative to migrate its 165 students,” Shefayet Ullah said.
A five-member committee headed by director of medical education was formed on February 24 to take decision about migration of the students.
The committee members will sit at the DGHS on March 10 for taking immediate action regarding transfer of the students.
The other members of the committee are dean of faculty of medical education of Dhaka University, registrar of BMDC, president and vice-president of Private Medical College Association.
On September 16, 2008 the ministry suspended students' admission, as the college did not follow the terms and conditions to run the college.
Raisuddin Sujan, a third year student of the medical college, told The Daily Star, “We are happy to hear that the government has decided to migrate us to other private medical colleges.”
He demanded return of their tuition fees amounting to Tk 8-10 lakh saying, "We have already lost one academic year.”
Shujan urged the government to ask the private medical colleges where they will be transferred not to take any admission fee.
“If Nightingale medical college returns our admission fees, we will give it to the new medical college,” he said.
The Nightingale college authorities did not allow the investigation team of DGHS on February 13 to investigate the college activities, sources said.