Gregory University Pioneers Medical Simulation

Gregory University Uturu

Gregory University, Uturu, Abia State is working out modalities to introduce medical simulation as a way of training medical students when it starts offering medicine by the end of the year.

Medical simulation is a branch of simulation technology related to education and training in medical fields of various industries. Gregory University would be the first of Nigeria's 123 universities to pioneer this method of teaching in Nigeria.

Chancellor of the university, Dr. Gregory Ibe while briefing newsmen at the National Universities Commission (NUC) in Abuja yesterday, said the university is in talks with Ivy league varsities in the United States to pilot the programme.

Ibe said medical simulation increases the capacity of universities to enrol more students to study Medicine and also reduces pressure on resources.

He said: " We have 30 medical colleges in Nigeria but the best of our universities can only admit a maximum of 150 students every year so the only way to increase the capacity is through medical simulation.

"If you go into piloting, the whole training is done through simulation. It is a new idea that is being used in the United States and we want to bring it to Nigeria."

Ibe also said the university had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tuskegee University, Alabama, USA, in engineering, aviation, business and agriculture which would involve students exchange, jointly organised workshops and joint research projects.

He said the university was also partnering with the NUC to organise a workshop for Nigerian universities on modalities for writing proposals to attract grants from donor agencies and not-for-profit organisations to reduce dependence on government funding