By Dayo Johnson, Akure

183 medical students of the first University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED),located in Ondo State, will be graduating as its first set of physicians.

The Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Adesegun Fatusi, said that the physicians, comprising medical practitioners and two sets of dental practitioners.

Speaking at a media briefing to herald the institutions 5th convocation ceremony, Prof Fatusi said that 585 students will be graduating.

 Fatusi, noted that the  feat in successfully training the physicians in record time is unprecedented in the country.

According to him “This ceremony, wherein the first sets of physicians ever produced on the soil of Ondo State, along with many other highly promising young people, are graduating, is eloquent testimony to that. We are not just graduating one set of physicians, but four sets, consisting of two sets of medical practitioners and two sets of dental practitioners.

“Yet, we are just nine years old as an institution. Never in the history of Nigeria has this ever happened.

“Our first set of medical practitioners had their professional induction by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) on May 23, 2023, while the second set of medical practitioners, along with the first and second sets of dental practitioners, were inducted on

December 19, 2023.

“This is a record in Nigeria’s 76-year-old history of university education.

“In addition, no university in the history of Nigeria has ever produced a set of dentists within its first decade of existence. Thus, UNIMED has set a new record. We have successfully

produced our first two sets of dentists within our first nine years of existence.

“Furthermore, other than Lagos State, no other state university has ever produced a dentist because of the huge resources required for dental training, but UNIMED has now achieved this feat!

“It is important to note, by the way, that hardly has any public university been able to graduate its first set of physicians within 10 years of enrolling students in a medical training programme over the last two to three decades because of MDCN’s highly rigorous, multi-stage accreditation process.”

“As records show, two of our neighbouring states in the Southwest zone had to shut down their medical training programmemes at some point; they only restarted the programme many years later.

“Another state university took as many as 13 years to graduate the first set of students who enrolled in medicine.

“A total of 183 students are graduating from professional programmes with

unclassified degrees: 96 students from medicine, 12 students from dentistry, and 75 students from physiotherapy.

” Also, 348 students are graduating from undergraduate programmes with classified degrees, consisting of 19 students with first class (5.5%), 217 students with second class upper division (62.9%), 94 students with second class lower division (27.2%), and 15 students with third class honours (4.3%).

“I am also pleased to report that our university succeeded in all the accreditation exercises that took place last year—both those conducted by the National Universities Commission, (NUC), as well as various professional regulatory bodies.

” There is no course in our university today without appropriate approval and accreditation from NUC and relevant regulatory bodies. In addition, we have also been successful in NUC’s resource verification exercises for the establishment of 13 new courses.

“These new courses include Audiology, Biotechnology, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Dental Technology, Dental Therapy, Health Care Administration and Hospital Management, Information Technology and Health Informatics, Medical Physics, Medicinal Chemistry, Occupational Therapy, and Pharmacology.

“Additionally, I am delighted to report that our first cohort of Community Health Science students recorded 100 percent in their professional examinations last year, even as our Nursing students have maintained their record of 100 percent in professional examinations.

“In the current academic session that started in October 2023, we admitted our first set of students into the new 6-year Doctor of Physiotherapy (DPT) programme.

“We have also admitted the first set of students into the Transitional Doctor of Physiotherapy programme—the first in Nigeria—which offers an opportunity for the graduates of the old Bachelor of

Physiotherapy programme from any university in West Africa to earn the Doctor of Physiotherapy degree.

Fatusi added that “In addition to establishing the first Faculty of Medical Rehabilitation in West Africa, we remain the only university in the West African subregion with four degrees programmes in the medical rehabilitation field—physiotherapy, occupational therapy, prosthetics and orthotics, and audiology.”