Academic Accreditation Council: symposium on medical education reality in Yemen and its challenges

Academic Accreditation Council: symposium on medical education reality in Yemen and its challenges

A symposium was held in Sanaa today on ''The reality of medical education in Yemen", in light of requirements of the international certification bodies'', organized by the Council for Academic Accreditation, under the conventions of providing technical support with Yemeni universities.

The symposium aims to shed light on the reality of medical education in Yemen, and the challenges facing its development, in light of requirements of international certification bodies, concerned with medical education programs. The symposium also reviewed the international guides of Medical Accreditation and Recognition Bodies.

Mr. Hussien Hazzib, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, stressed the importance of the symposium in enhancing partnership with the Ministry of Health and Population (MHP) as a matter of urgency as well as integrative and participative process to improve the quality of medical inputs for obtaining desired outputs. He also stressed taking into account the view-points of the Ministry of Health and the Supreme Medical Council regarding improving the quality of medical outputs and coordinating with them on monitoring and supervision over programs, colleges and medical education. Mr. Hazib directed the relevant sector in (MHESR) and the Council for Academic Accreditation in coordination with the Supreme Medical Council through involving them in licensing procedures at the opening of programs, colleges and medical universities. He explained that the Ministry will carry out a visit to the public and private universities to know the extent of implementing national and academic standards in various medical and engineering specializations, and it will take actions against any violations. The Minister of Higher Education said, '' I totally agree with the Minister of Health about the need of private universities to have human medicine programs, teaching and full-service hospital, in accordance with international approved standards, which enable students to acquire clinical training and provide high quality health services to the community".

For his part, the Minister of Health, Dr. Taha Al-Mutwakel, emphasized the need for strengthening partnership with (MHESR), the Council for Academic Accreditation, Quality Assurance and the Supreme Medical council to ensure better medical outputs. Al-Mutwakel reviewed the current situation, the medical and the health difficulties within the continuous aggression, which targets medical and educational institution, hospitals and health centers,  in addition to attracting human cadres and its impact on the medical outcomes. He called the symposium organizers to consider the Human Resource Strategy recently completed as one of the most important references that diagnosed the problem, challenges, remedy and proposed solutions. The Minster also confirmed Yemen need for qualified cadres requireing unifying the efforts of (MHP) and (MHSR) by directing the attentions of Yemeni universities in the coming period to the importance of the academic modern curricula to match the needs of the country. For medical students' specialties, they have to pay attention to clinical training to guarantee high quality outputs. He expressed the readiness of Ministry of Health to prepare public hospitals in order to serve Higher Education and clinical training with necessity of having trainers as well as focusing on establishing medical colleges in governorates, with commitment to minimum of the academic standards.

 The Deputy Minister of Higher Education Dr. Ali Sharaf Aldeen, on his part, pointed out that real doctors are teaching in universities as well as working in hospitals and health centers. He added that (MHP) is responsible for identifying the needs of helpful, medical and health cadres, while (MHESR) is responsible to ensure meeting the needs in accordance with international accreditation standards.

The Chairman of Academic Accreditation Council, Dr. Ahmed Al- Haboub, reviewed the most well-known accreditation bodies that accredit medical educational programs and the evidences of medical accreditation and recognition bodies. He explained the standards of academic accreditation related to medical education in accordance with WFME amendments. The symposium was attended by Undersecretary for Scientific Research Sector Dr. Sadq Al-Sharjbi, Undersecretary for Scholarships Sector Dr. Abdul-kareem Al-Rwadhi, Assistant Undersecretary for thePlanning Sector Dr, Elham Al-Sanbani, the Chairman of the Supreme Medical Council – 21^st Sep University President Dr. Mujhed Messar, and the presidents of the public and private Universities' as well as the deans of medical colleges.

Undersecretary of Ministry of Health Dr. Abdul-Malek Al- Sana'ani presented the indicators of the health system in Yemen and its challenges.

The 1^st and 2^nd sessions of the symposium, moderated by national expert Dr. Noaman Fairooz, discussed a number of working papers. The 1^st session presented Medical Education in Yemen, in terms of establishment and development, as explained by Dr. Abdullah Al-Meklafi.

The 2^nd session was about national and international organizations, which are interested in Medical Education.

The 3^rd paper focused on the Academic Accreditation Guide for medical colleges in light of WFME for Medical Education amendments in 2020, which was introduced by  Dr.Sharaf Al-Humdi and  Dr. Noaman Fairooz.