ASUU CHIEF, EX-CMUL PROVOST DISAGREE ON MEDICAL FELLOWSHIP AS PHD
National President, of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke and former Provost, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola have both given different viewpoints as concerns recognising a medical postgraduate fellowship as PhD degree for the position of a Vice-Chancellor in Nigerian universities.
Recently, a Senate representative on the Joint Council and Senate Selection Committee for the appointment of the Lagos State University’s 9th VC, Prof. Fidelis Njonkama resigned after he failed to convince the Governing Council to include postgraduate Medical Fellowship as one of the criteria for the appointment of a substantive VC for LASU.
Osodeke, in an interview with The PUNCH, maintained that a PhD was not the same as post graduate medical fellowship, saying PhD was academic while fellowship was professional.
“The university said that the minimum requirement is a PhD and medical fellowship is not the same and not equal. In the medical profession, they are saying it is medical fellowship but there are many people who have PhD in medical science. So, it is not correct, they are different field, one is professional and the other is academic. For example, ICAN is a professional certificate it is not the same thing as PhD. they are completely different. If LASU says that the minimum requirement they want is a PhD then the person who has a medical fellowship cannot say he has a PhD nor a person who is ICAN certified cannot say he has a PhD. I think we should get it right. The council has a right to set the minimum qualification they want.”
On the contrary, Ogunsola who was also a former Deputy Vice-Chancellor, UNILAG, said globally, medical professionals did not require a PhD but a fellowship to work in a university.
“When others are employed into a university, their entrance is by PhD but we come in with a fellowship. By the time the university has promoted you to a Professor, they cannot turn around and say because we didn’t accept you as a PhD you can’t become a VC they never had that contract with the medics. It is all over the world, in most places medics don’t do PhD, that is not how we come in. You can’t use a PhD to work in a university as a medical person and say you’re a surgeon. You cannot train medical students based on PhD; you don’t have the local standing. What brings you into the university is your fellowship, r Now, what is a PhD? It is a degree that says you have been trained in doing research.
“The medical fellowship has incorporated into it research because you must do dissertation and even if you say the dissertation they did is not as long as the PhD, these professors have spent a long time in the university and have advanced based on doing research,” she said.
However, last week Friday, LASU rescinded its decision to make a PhD degree criteria for Medical and Dental professionals who wishes to apply for the VC position in the institution.
