Some 200 level and 300 level cross-over medical students of the Abia State University, Uturu, Abia State, face an uncertain future over a directive by the management of the institution that they should revert to their former departments or leave the institution.
In a recent memo signed by the Deputy Registrar, Mrs. I.O. Ezenuruihe, the affected students were asked to withdraw from the Medicine and Surgery programme “no matter the level reached.’’ Our correspondent obtained a copy of the memo.
Ezenuruihe, who is also the College Secretary, College of Medicine and Health Sciences of the university, noted in the memo, “It has come to the knowledge of the management committee that handled the screening exercise in the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, that some students deliberately did not disclose their change of course, nor submit change o f course letters as requested.
“The management stand is that all change-of-course students must return to their former departments. Therefore, any student(s) found at any point in time, to have changed from another department to Medicine and Surgery must be asked to withdraw, no matter the level reached.”
However, some of the affected students, who spoke to our correspondent on Monday, accused the management of the university of double standard, adding that many of them had paid tuition and attended lectures and sat for examinations in the Department of Medicine and Surgery for at least three semesters without an incident.
The students, who said they were at loss of what to do, wondered why it took the management of the institution over one year to take a stand.
One of them, who craved anonymity, said, “I was admitted to study Biochemistry, but I changed my course during the second semester of my first year. I am now in the second semester of my second year in the Medicine and Surgery department, some of us are in the second semester of their third year and we are all at a loss of what to do. As for me, I cannot go back to my former department. I have discussed with my parents and they are disappointed that the university could do this. I am going to transfer to another school.’’
Expressing his anger, a parent of one of the students called on stakeholders to hold the institution accountable for what he called “corruption and impunity.”
He said, “How can you tell students who duly changed from other departments to Medicine and Surgery to go back to their former departments after two or three years? What type of country is this? Can we really develop with corruption and impunity being the order of the day in our institutions? I doubt it.’’
However, the Public Relations Officer of ABSU, Mr. Acho Elendu, in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Monday, declined to speak on the development.
“I am not authorised to speak on it because I have not been briefed. The news is strange to me,” he said.
Source:punch
