Running a medical programme is expensive for universities because the resources required to train one medical student are equivalent to the resources required to train 10 students in another discipline.

The Provost of the College of Medical Sciences of Modibbo Adama University, Yola, Prof Adamu Girei, who stated this to journalists, added that as many as 17 medically-related departments are needed for a full-fledged medical programme.

Prof Girei spoke to journalists on the sidelines of an inspection of the facilities of the new College of Medical Sciences of the Modibbo Adama University, MAU, by officials from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).

Giving insight into what makes medical studies expensive, Adamu Bakare said: “For virtually all other programmes you apply for, the lecturers in the department train and give you a degree in that programme. For medicine, we have 17 departments, all of which contribute to producing only one degree. Each of the 17 departments produces one degree.

“Also, like pilots who have simulators, in medicine, too, we have simulators: simulation laboratories, because nobody will experiment on you, your wife, or your child. You need to try it on a simulator. The simulators are very expensive. And it’s not as if when you buy them today, they will be there forever. You have to keep replacing them.

“So, it’s not every Vice Chancellor that wants to start a medical programme. The facilities are very expensive. The salaries of the lecturers too are very high.”

He added that running a medical school in Nigeria, where tuition is free, is difficult for universities because it is the universities that have to look for the money to run the programme.

According to him, although people say students pay a lot for medical programmes, such fees, he opined, do not really amount to much when viewed against the requirements for medical training.

Giving a historical background to the newly established College of Medical Sciences, Bakare said it is the vision of the Vice Chancellor of the Modibbo Adama University, Prof Abdullahi Tukur, who, after noting that Adamawa indigenes were not getting admission to read medicine elsewhere, chose to dedicate resources to the new college