KATHMANDU, Oct 5: The Tribhuvan University's Institute of Medicine (IOM) is all set to run BDS (Bachelor in Dental Surgery) course for the first time in its history.
The IOM was established in 1972 under the Tribhuvan University with the mandate and responsibility of training and producing all categories of health manpower needed in the country.
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However, it did not start BDS classes in the last 45 years though the IOM-affiliated medical colleges enrolled 195 students in BDS in this academic session. The private medical colleges admitted 170 students for BDS last year. Among 195 seats of BDS allocated for affiliated colleges, Universal College of Medical Sciences, Bhairahawa; Chitwan Medical College, Bharatpur; and KIST Medical College, Kathmandu have 40 seats each while People's Dental College, Kathmandu and Gandaki Medical College, Pokhara have 50 and 25 seats respectively, according to the IOM.
"We are going to launch BDS classes for the first time from the academic session beginning November 17," said Prof Dr. JP Agrawal, Dean at IOM.IOM enrolls 76 students in MBBS while other remaining colleges enroll 585 MBBS students every year.
Within the first decade of IOM's establishment, it developed a total of 12 campuses across the country out of which three campuses were in Kathmandu and nine campuses were outside the Kathmandu Valley. IOM was established with the goals of producing human resources for health services, providing health services through its health institutions and conducting research in health sciences.
