From pharmacy to medicine

Jamia Hamdard, known for its expertise in medical and allied education, is now successfully running programmes in management and social sciences, too Vimal Chander Joshi reports

From a pharmacy college to a deemed university starting an MBBS programme next year, Jamia Hamdard (university) has come a long way in the 20 years of its existence.

This university attracts students from all across India and from Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and the SAARC countries because of the varied programmes it offers. Starting out with life science subjects, Jamia Hamdard has now launched job-oriented programmes like MBA and MCA. “I had doubts when I joined Jamia for my MBA, as this university is popular for its pharmacy and science courses, but later I realised that the management faculty is also top-notch and makes good managers out of young people, most of whom are from small towns,” says Faraaz khan, an ex-student now working as assistant marketing manager at a B-school in Delhi.

Jamia Hamdard is not a central university like Jamia Millia Islamia but is based on a public-private partnership model. Thanks to the strong industry presence in its organisational structure, the university has industry-driven projects in its laboratories, a clinical centre and part-time faculty from the industry.

“I did my post-doctoral studies in Germany, where I learnt that the faculty members who had spent a fair number of years in the industry are anytime better than those who are only academicians. We have also developed a similar culture where professionals from the industry also join academia,” says Dr GN Qazi, vice-chancellor, Jamia Hamdard.

Programmes: Science students can opt for BPharm, BUMS, Bachelor of occupational therapy, Bachelor of physiotherapy, BTech/ BSc/MTech/MSc in computer science, MCA, BSC/ MSc (nursing), diploma in pharmacy and many others like MD (unani) and MSC (clinical research). In commerce and social sciences, one can opt for MBA and MA (human rights/Islamic studies). Many of these programmes are available at the doctoral level, too, including management, pharmacy and biochemistry, toxicology and biotechnology.

Infrastructure: Jamia Hamdard boasts a 150-bed multi-speciality hospital, where students of physiotherapy, unani and nursing get hands-on experience. It is being expanded and will have 200 beds added on by next year. The university has one central and six faculty libraries with more than two lakh journals and books. There are three hostels for girls and four for boys.

Found on campus: “I have a lot of friends who studied here and are now well placed in big companies back home. That’s why I came here, too,” says Auwal Garba, a final-year student of MSc (biochemistry) from Nigeria.

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“Hostel facilities for boys should be expanded as most of the students don’t get seats. And the university should also have a proper placement service. As of now, many students are absorbed by the companies that help run the laboratories here. There are many PG students who want to join the industry after Master’s,” says Noor Alam, a PG student of biochemistry from Bihar.

Factfile
Jamia Hamdard was founded as a small unani clinic in 1906 by Hakeem Hafiz Abdul Majeed, a practitioner of that system of medicine. In 1962, the Institute of History of Medicine and Medical Research was set up here, followed next year by the opening of the Indian Institute of Islamic Studies. In the same year, the unani college was started in old Delhi and later shifted to its south Delhi campus. In 1972, the pharmacy college began functioning. And in 1989, Jamia Hamdard got deemed-to-be university status.