New opportunities

PROVIDING the right type of educational programme that suits a person and the right kind of institution with adequate facilities to accomplish his/her educational pursuit is the basis of success of any educational institution.

The Annamalai University is no exception. For instance, education in physiotherapy cannot be better elsewhere because the university provides unique facilities. At present there are very few centres in India with such facilities, says Vice-Chancellor M. Ramanathan.

The university offers three programmes: Bachelor of Physiotherapy (BPT), a four-year programme with six months of stipendiary internship; Master of Physiotherapy (MPT), a two-year stipendiary programme; and Master of Physiotherapy (MPTh), a five-year integrated programme with six months of stipendiary internship.

Every eligible candidate has two options after completing the higher secondary education.

The first option is to join the four-year programme, which equips the candidates in all aspects of physiotherapy and prepares them to take up the two-year MPT programme with electives in five subjects. The second option is to take up an integrated programme that leads to complete postgraduate education with electives in five different subjects.

According to university sources, the five-year integrated programme is a trendsetter in physiotherapy education. While it gives the candidate an opportunity to save a year while doing postgraduation, training remains as intensive as before. Fitness sciences, ergonomic diseases and ethics and management are part of the curriculum. This gives the graduate the much needed advantage in practice and in academics, said a source.

The presence of large number of patients in the outpatient and inpatient categories in the Raja Muthiah Medical College Hospital also offers the student rich and varied clinical material, which is seldom found on a campus.

The university has its own departments of Sociology, Psychology, Education, Management and Statistics. Since the Medical College runs MBBS and postgraduate programmes in 18 medical specialties, it has good faculties in all medical disciplines.

Referring to the physiotherapy programmes run by the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, university officials say that as of now very few educational institutions in the country can boast such a specialty.

The department has an artificial limb centre, a gait and equilibrium lab, an electro-diagnostic section, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation services, a sports medicine section, paediatric neuromotor clinic with neuro-developmental therapy facilities, a speech and language service and community rehabilitation services.

The learning experience in this environment gives students a distinct advantage and enables them to gain confidence in managing difficult clinical situations, higher level competencies and soft skills.

These have made them much-sought-after human resource in clinical and academic settings. Our graduates have been recruited into clinical practices, hospitals, sports and fitness centres, physiotherapy colleges across the country and abroad in North America, the United Kingdom and South-East Asia. Their work and performance are seen as commendable and this opens up new opportunities and scope to future graduates as well, pointed out a university source.

For the BPT course, the total fees, including that for board and lodging, is around Rs.2,00,000; for the MPTh course, the same works out to around Rs.4,00,000.

With increasing investments in and growth of pharmaceutical industries and the contract research market, a graduate in pharmacy has ample scope to find placements as production executives, quality assurance and quality control officers and marketing executives, experts in the sector say.

The Department of Pharmacy in Annamalai University was established in 1982. It offers various programmes: Diploma in Pharmacy, Bachelor of Pharmacy, Master of Pharmacy and PhD. The department has an excellent infrastructure for teaching, learning and research, says the Vice-Chancellor.

Collaborations with pharmaceutical industries, research organisations and hospitals give an added advantage to the students. The department has been receiving funds from various national and international agencies. It has well-qualified, trained and experienced faculty drawn from different parts of the country. The alumni of the department have occupied pivotal positions in the country and abroad.

Candidates with the following qualifications are eligible for admission: A pass in the higher secondary examination or an equivalent examination with a minimum aggregate of 50 per cent marks in Physics, Computer Science, Chemistry and Biology, Botany and Zoology, Mathematics, and Biotechnology.

For Scheduled Caste-Scheduled Tribe candidates, the minimum qualification is a pass in these subjects. Candidates who have not studied Biology or Mathematics undergo a programme in Introductory Mathematics as the case may be along with first year BPharm subjects.

Students with Diploma in Pharmacy under the new educational regulations of the Pharmacy Council of India, can directly join the second year BPharm courses as a lateral entry.

A pass in BSc. degree in one attempt with Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Biotechnology and Computer Science subjects either at the Plus Two level or at the graduate level.

Selection of candidates to the BPharm degree programme is made on the basis of a qualifying examination, an entrance examination and an interview. Tuition fees, examination fees, hostel fees and the cost of books and lab records for all the four years would work out to Rs.3,00,000.

The Rajah Muthiah Institute of Health Sciences came into existence following the founding of the medical college in 1985.

Designated then simply as Faculty of Health Sciences, both the dental and medical colleges surged ahead to new horizons with the collective effort of everyone associated with it, university sources say.

According to them, the Rajah Muthiah Dental College and Hospital is one of the most-sought-after dental education destinations in the world today.

With the undergraduate course making a mark in dental teaching and training curriculum, the postgraduate stream in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Periodontics and Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry was launched in 1988.

Apart from this, two more postgraduate specialties Prosthodontia and Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopaedics were incorporated in 1989. Three more postgraduate courses Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Oral Medicine and Radiology and Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics were introduced in 2006. The institute also offers diploma courses in Dental Hygiene and Dental Mechanics.

The institute has won approval to function as a centre for Diplomate in National Board (DNB) and the first exam in Oral Pathology was conducted in 2005.

The entire college has been given a facelift recently and the departments have been refurbished and new equipment installed.

Conferences are held periodically to enable the students to update themselves with the ever-expanding research, progress and development in the diverse realms of the profession. Faculties from foreign institutions also visit the institute very often. Continuing dental education programmes are held every month to help both the faculty and students to present research papers.

Adopting the reach out to the unreached strategy, the institute holds regular screening and treatment camps for the public and schoolchildren in different parts of the State. Over the past 26 years, there has been a fourfold increase in the number of patients treated at the institute from 6,240 in 1983 to 49,595 patients in 2008.

The present intake in the undergraduate section, which is recognised by the Dental Council of India, is 100 students.

The performance of the three departments stand testimony to the Annamalai Universitys commitment to serve the economically backward sections, university sources say.