South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine

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South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine
SAITM
File:South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine-Logo.png
Motto Education with Character
Type Private
Established 2008
President Neville Fernando
Vice-Chancellor Malkanthi Chandrasekera
Academic staff
 115
Location
Malabe
,
Western Province
,
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka
Campus Main Campus, 4 acres (Suburban), Malabe
Colors Blue, green         
Website www.saitm.edu.lk

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The South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM), formerly the South Asian Institute of Technology and Management, is a privately owned educational institution providing higher education in Sri Lanka.[1] It is the first private sector Green Campus to be established in the country.[2] It has run into controversy with regard to its facilities to award degrees and the validity and legality of the MBBS degrees it awards.[3]

History and background

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. The South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine was established by Dr. Neville Fernando, a Sri Lankan businessman and former politician. The initial investment was Rs. 800 million[citation needed], but this had to be increased with the addition of a new block for the Teaching Hospital.[4] As a result, the investment was increased by a further Rs. 1200 million.[5] SAITM is open for academic objectives from January 2009.

Institute

File:SAITM Main Building I.jpg
Main Building of SAITM

The institute is in the city of Malabe, close to the capital Colombo. It is in Sri Lanka's first IT park. Construction was undertaken by the Sri Lankan engineering firm International Construction Consortium (ICC). The building is a five-storied enclosure equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure. A sophisticated 1000 bed teaching hospital has been constructed for the use of clinical studies, and is opening on the 9th of April 2013.

The South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine was developed to provide university education to students who have successfully completed Advanced Level examinations but are unable to attend state universities due to lack of facilities in them.[6]

Criticism

The Higher Education Minister and the University Grants Commission (UGC) were criticised by the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) for offering degree awarding status to the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine.[7]

Controversy

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File:SAITM Hospital Under Construction I (20-02-2013).jpg
Hospital Under Construction

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) has urged the ministry of health to find out how the institute could operate as a private medical university without obtaining the necessary government approvals.[8] The secretary to the GMOA queried as to why SAITM has failed to send its students to the Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy Russia as assured by the management at the beginning. He stated that "It was said that this course would be a twin programme where part of the lectures would be conducted in Sri Lanka and later the students would be sent to Russia for clinical training. Why are they not sending the students to Russia for clinical training as promised?"[8] However, the director of the medical faculty of SAITM, Dr Sameera Senaratne said that SAITM now has degree-awarding status from the University Grants Commission (the official, legal recognition by the required authority to grant degrees after requesting such three years ago) and, therefore, the SLMC is now permitted to monitor SAITM for the MBBS degree program being conducted at SAITM. The students thus entered into the program are scrutinized by the UGC to meet with the standards of the students entering into medical faculties.

However, under the national medical ordinance, anyone who wants to practice medicine in Sri Lanka should have registration in SLMC, which is the equivalent body to GMC in UK. GMOA even challenged the use of "doctor" in front of the name of director, SAITM, because he is not legally qualified to practice in Sri Lanka and not registered with SLMC. GMOA claims that director of SAITM failed the ACT16 exam (a basic qualifying exam to practice medicine in Sri Lanka) several times and how could even in an academic position in a medical school. With all the problems SAITM is facing, several parents have requested refund for the money they paid and already withdrawn some of the students from SAITM.

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Clash over private medical college, The Sunday Times, September 11, 2011
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ [1][dead link]
  7. ↑ [2][dead link]
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 [3][dead link]

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