Having observed the increasing costs in terms of foreign exchange spent annually on medical tourism and clinical courses overseas, McPherson University in Ogun State has begun courses in Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health and other related courses to support other University Teaching Hospitals in cutting the huge capital flight. It has been estimated that Nigeria loses between $1 and 2 billion annually in foreign exchange to what has been branded as medical tourism.”
The establishment of clinical and pharmaceutical courses as well as a teaching hospital, according to the University, will be a follow-up to the free medical services and treatments already conducted for over 3,000 residents of Seriki-Sotayo and its environs in Obafemi-Owode local government area in the last seven years.
The University’s Management added that the medical facilities within the University Health Centre had been upgraded with modern clinical equipment in order to cater for more patients and improve on knowledge of its students, especially Nursing students, to offer clinical services.
Speaking at the 7th Convocation of McPherson University held on Campus at the weekend, Francis Igbasan, a Professor and Vice-Chancellor of the University, declared that the University’s Nursing Science is already competing with other Universities of the World and McPherson University is planning to the Faculty of Pharmacy and other programmes like Public Health, and Health Information Records in order to speed up Nigeria’s efforts to ending medical tourism.
The Vice-Chancellor, who noted that the University had embarked on clinical facilities upgrade having recorded an increase in the number of patients on daily basis, said, “we have also embarked on Facility upgrade, which includes, an increase in the bed capacity, a modern surgical operating theatre, an ultrasound scanning machine, a genotype tank, an X-ray machine and other facilities for X-ray services. All the above have earned us NHIS accreditation.”
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While noting that all the academic courses being offered in the School have full accreditation from the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC), Igbasan stated that tuition fees for some courses, including English, History and International Relations, Marketing, Finance, among others, had been slashed from the old N600,000 per session to N300,000, N350,000 and N390,000 per session, but Nursing Science was increased from N750,000 to N1 Million per session.
He said, “There was a downward review of tuition fees for English, Finance, History and International Relations and Marketing, but light upward review of the Nursing Science tuition fee.
“Let me add that with the slight increase, McPherson University’s tuition fees for Nursing Science is still one of the most affordable in Ogun State and across the entire South Western Nigeria. The increase was in line with unavoidable economic realities.”
Giving statistics of the academic performance for the 7th Convocation of McPherson University, Igbasan stated that the University had 107 graduands out of which the University recorded 10 First Class Honours, 57 Second Class Upper Division, 32 Second Class Lower Division, while 8 students, representing 3.7 percent, had Third Class.
BusinessDay reports that Mutiu Sunmonu, former Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited (SPDC) was installed as the University’s Chancellor, while Victor Oladokun, Director of Communication and External Relations at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) delivered Convocation Lecture.
