Ugandan doctors urged to embrace international studies for further skills
Mr Moses Turyagumanawe an official from Unicaf University looks on as Dr Herbert Luswata the President of Uganda Medical Association (UMA) signs a Memorandum of understanding between UMA and Unicaf University. Photo / Courtesy
Ugandan doctors have been encouraged to take up new international online scholarships to further their skills.
The call was made by Uganda Medical Association (UMA) president Dr Herbert Luswata during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between UMA and Unicaf University, the institution which has offered the scholarships to the doctors in different universities in Malawi, Zambia, London and United Kingdom.
Under the arrangement, medics will acquire degrees where 80 percent of the fees will be catered for in the scholarship.
“Our members can study these courses online so you don't have to travel for two years to go and study, which is a problem to the service delivery in the country. For us doctors you cannot settle until you have at least a masters because you need promotions, specialised care and better services you are providing to the clients,” Dr Luswata observed.
Dr Luswata said these scholarships will make life easy for doctors to get masters, PhDs that are not clinical without necessarily creating staffing gaps in Ugandan hospitals.
“Clinical courses are those that you don't require you to study as you practice on patients such as Master's in Public Health, PhD in Research, so it is a good opportunity for members of UMA and I know many of them will apply for them,” he said.
Unicaf University official Moses Turyagumanawe clarified that academic documents attained after the study don’t indicate that the person studied online, highlighting that studying remotely saves costs on expenses such as transport and accommodation on foreign soil.
“Unicaf offers partial scholarships to make learning affordable which helps you to attain an internationally recognised degree like at the University of East London at an affordable price,” Turyagumanawe said.
He added, “It is purely online. We also do this through renowned partners in the United Kingdom. They offer bachelors, masters, in sciences, Humanities and it also offers short professional courses.”
