‘National postgraduate medical college eligible to certify specialists’

Registrar of the National Postgraduate Medical College, Prof. A.O. Atoyebi  has said  the institution has the capacity to certify specialists  who will train other medical and dental doctors to professional level in Nigeria. Atoyebi’s clarification was sequel to the controversy over  the capacity of Postgraduate Fellowship in Medicine and Dentistry vis a vis Ph.D. in […]

Registrar of the National Postgraduate Medical College, Prof. A.O. Atoyebi  has said  the institution has the capacity to certify specialists  who will train other medical and dental doctors to professional level in Nigeria.
Atoyebi’s clarification was sequel to the controversy over  the capacity of Postgraduate Fellowship in Medicine and Dentistry vis a vis Ph.D. in Nigeria’s university  system.
In a letter addressed to the college principal, Prof Rasheed Arogundade, Atoyebi said: “It has become imperative for the college to make some  clarifications  as the organ of the Federal Government  of Nigeria that awards the Fellowship in Clinical Medicine and Dentistry in line with international best practices.
“The National Postgraduate Medical College was established by law as a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal. The law gave the college the responsibility to conduct postgraduate examinations of candidates in the various branches of medicine and dentistry.”
He observed that in Nigeria, the highest graduate qualification recognized for clinical sciences, is the fellowship  while for core basic  medical sciences (anatomy, biochemistry and physiology), it is the Ph.D which is recognized to get to peak of their careers.
He said: “ The uniqueness of the  Fellowship training of the College  is the fact that it combines the full academic research content as  obtainable in any sound doctoral degree with the structural clinical (professional ) postgraduate training. This accounts why it takes a long time to produce a single Fellow in any of the specialized branches of Medicine and Dentistry.”