Medical varsity plans scholarships

The Gulf Medical University (GMU) has announced a new initiative to help students benefit from more scholarships based on support from the industry. Engaging companies to contribute to medical education, the university has started a ‘Care to Share’ programme which allows companies, philanthropists and non-governmental organisations to sponsor students of medical and allied health programmes. Each year, the university receives 3,000 applications for medical programmes offered at the university. Only 300 applicants go through the interview process and 160 are finally enrolled. Most students seek scholarships. While scholarships and education grants are based on academic merit, medical education programmes are known to be expensive.  In an interview with Khaleej Times, Thumbay Moideen, president of GMU, expressed the need for more scholarships as he said, “We would like to give an equal opportunity to the economically weak but academically bright students to enrol in the health education programmes.” The ‘Care to Share’ programme is expected to benefit more than 80 per cent of students at the varsity over the next three years. “Academic scholarships motivate students to work harder and achieve greater heights and we have always supported bright students by providing them fee discounts,” added Thumbay. The university was recently acknowledged by the World Health Organisation for its research efforts, as research inputs from GMU were included in the regional health index.