A UAE-based group will help set up a medical university in Afghanistan.
The Thumbay Group and the Afghanistan government have already signed an agreement to set up the university in Kabul. The university will start functioning by the first quarter of 2004, according to a Thumbay spokesperson.
The university will comprise a medical college and a teaching hospital, which will be affiliated to the Gulf Medical College in Ajman, which was also established by the Thumbay Group.
The decision to set up the university was taken after a high-level delegation led by Dr Sharif Fayz, Minister for Higher Education of Afghanistan, visited the UAE to have discussions with the Thumbay Group. The Afghan government has also requested support and guidance of Thumbay Holdings International (THI) to run two major hospitals in Aghanistan.
THI has agreed to send its expertise to run the hospitals. THI is an internationally known company, offering consultancy in designing, construction and hospital management.
The spokesman said the Afghanistan government has assured its support in establishing the first private university after the recent war. "It is our commitment to our people to provide high quality education," said Dr Fayz during his recent visit.
The first batch of students will be able to take up their MBBS course by March 2004 at the Ariana Gulf Medical University in Kabul. A certain percentage of seats will be reserved for the economically weaker and deserving students from Afghanistan.
The teaching faculty is being sourced from various countries and teaching methodology will be of international standard.
Gulf News
