KOTTAYAM: Confusion over transferring the affiliation of the nine School of Medical Education (SME) institutions here to the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS) is delaying admissions. The Gandhinagar campus of the SME has not yet issued admission notification for the coming academic year, usually made early April. The SME authorities are anxious that it is also becoming difficult to renew the annual agreement for degree courses. “Since the discussions over transferring affiliation are progressing, we are not able to issue the notifications as it is mandatory to mention the university which the institutions are affiliated with,” the SME Gandhinagar campus director Dr S. Rejiram told this newspaper.
A meeting held at the office of the higher education secretary on February 23 had decided to register the SME institutions as an autonomous body and then to affiliate to the KUHS following apprehensions over legal validity of the postgraduate and undergraduate courses as the institutions were directly under the MG University. The Section 50 (1) of the KUHS Act 2010 specifically bars all except professional medical colleges or teaching institutions under deemed universities and the national institutes from conducting courses in modern medicine, dental, Ayush, nursing, pharmacy and other paramedical and allied subjects.
