PRESUMABLY THE Jamaican Government has checked carefully on the bona fides of its American partners in the United States off-shore college specialising in a range of medical specialities, which is to commence operations in Kingston next year. Sometimes offshore institutions fail to deliver all they promise at the outset but we note that the college has, in fact, already been accredited by the University Council of Jamaica and received the blessing of the Government.
The Sirlan College of Medicine will offer courses in dentistry, veterinary science, nursing, pharmacology, biomedical and sanitary engineering, awarding appropriate bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. degrees to its graduates but not, apparently, the awarding of medical degrees for doctors.
The college is planning to commence teaching in September 2005 with 125 students, most of whom we presume will initially come from the U.S. and other metropolitan centres although Jamaican students are not excluded.
It is also proposed to recruit local clinicians to teach some of the technical subjects and this is an added benefit of the venture. If proper standards are maintained, we can envision a time when Jamaican students might well outnumber their overseas counterparts since there is ample demand in the local economy for the disciplines being offered. Given the shortage of trained personnel in some of these areas, Jamaicans should avail themselves of this additional training opportunity.
There may be some confusion about the name 'Sirlan College of Medicine' since this might imply that the college would be competing with the medical faculty of the University of the West Indies in the training of doctors who graduate with an M.D. degree. This may be a matter of semantics but needs to be clarified so that the scope and status of the new college is not in doubt.
There has been some confusion whether, under a WTO protocol signed some years ago by the Jamaican Government, subsidies paid by the Government to local tertiary institutions would also have to be offered to offshore entities that wish to operate in Jamaica. A recent announcement indicates that the Government will be seeking release from such a commitment, if indeed it was made. The original signing of the WTO protocol by Jamaica was perhaps too hasty, without sufficient attention being paid to its consequences. If it is now clear that no similar subsidies can be demanded by offshore educational institutions operating in Jamaica, we welcome the advent of the Sirlan enterprise which will fill an important gap in the training of medical technologists.
