Qatar University will open admission to its new College of Medicine for the academic year 2015-16 in Fall 2015.
The College will enroll up to 50 students in its first year for the six-year programme, which leads to a Doctor of Medicine degree (MD), QU said following its Board of Regents' approval for the college.
QU's Board of Regents also approved the College's organizational structure, its budget, and the appointment of Dr. Egon Toft as Vice President for Medicine and Health and Dean of the College of Medicine.
Dr Toft said, "The establishment of the College addresses the need for Qatar-trained physicians and medical professionals. It will make invaluable contributions to strengthening the healthcare and education in Qatar overall." The university said it will make effort to attract Qatari students to pursue career in medicine as well as enrolling long-term residents.
The programme will combine coursework and clinical learning, and students will be working with patients in a clinical setting from the first year while medical sciences coursework will extend throughout the course of the study in an integrated way.
Clinical teaching will be in co-operation with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) as well as other leaders in the healthcare sector in Qatar.
The programme, for male and female students, will also benefit from collaboration opportunities with important partner programs within QU such as pharmacy, biomedical sciences, nutrition and public health.
Students will attend general courses in other colleges - such as biomedical sciences, chemistry and others - in a gender-segregated environment, while specialized courses and clinical teaching will be offered jointly.
Dr Abdulatif Al Khal member of the steering committee for the College of Medicine at Qatar University and Deputy Chief of Staff for Graduate Medical Education at Hamad Medical Corporation said, "The College aims to attract highly competitive students, and outstanding local and international academics.
"The classes will be limited in number and highly focused on delivering a high quality education leveraging the most advanced learning systems.
"Students need to achieve a high standard that allows them to meet the requirements for moving smoothly in their undergraduate studies and on to residency or fellowship programs at HMC and other healthcare systems in Qatar and abroad in order to prepare them for their professional lives as highly competent and independent physicians." Dr Asmaa Al Thani a member of the College steering committee, Head of the Department of Health Sciences at the College of Arts and Sciences and Director of the Biomedical Research Center at Qatar University said, "Our aim is to create a sustainable source of highly qualified physicians to serve the needs of the Qatari healthcare system.
"We need to attract more Qatari students to pursue careers in medicine, and also to support long-term expatriates interested in pursuing the profession, in order to contribute to the rising demand for locally rooted family physicians.
"This will not happen overnight but an important first step has been taken and I am confident that Qatar University has what it takes to make this promising project a great success." The second phase of the implementation plan for the college begins immediately where new members will join the College's Steering Committee including leaders and experts from QU, HMC and PHCC, in addition, a new member from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in the US being appointed to the College's international advisory board.