Aga Khan University and the College Partner to Host the First MRCS Examination in Karachi
RCSEd Communications Team
The Aga Khan University (AKU) partnered with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) to host the MRCS examination for the first time at AKU premises.
Founded in 1983 as Pakistan’s first private university, AKU is a not-for-profit institution and an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network. Starting in 2000, the University expanded to Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Afghanistan, and the United Kingdom.
The foundation for the MRCS examination to be held at Karachi was laid a year earlier when Mr. Zahid Raza visited AKU and met Dr Muhammad Rizwan Khan, who is the Professor of Surgery and Associate Dean of Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) at AKU and also the International Surgical Advisor to the College. This led to further collaborations and the examination was finally held on 13-14 September 2023, at the Centre for Innovation in Medical Education (CIME), Karachi, Pakistan and a total of 82 candidates took the examination.
CIME at AKU is a world class facility housing purpose built teaching-learning and assessment spaces as well as extensive array of high fidelity mannequins. CIME aims to transform medical education in through partnerships and raising expectations of what is possible in education, innovation, and learning through technology. Mr. Zahid Raza and Professor Peter McCollum were the examination conveners along with a number of college examiners and all of them had a great time conducting the examination at AKU Karachi and were thoroughly impressed by the facilities available at CIME.
The examination was followed by the Annual Conference of Postgraduate Medical Education of AKU held at its campus on 15-16 September, 2023, with active participation by the College faculty. The theme of the conference for this year was ‘Competency Assessment in Postgraduate Training’ and was well attended by the postgraduate trainees and the academic faculty. Mr. Ahmed Nassef was the chief guest at the inaugural session of the conference along with the invited scientific talks by Professor Peter McCollum, Mr. Andrew Tambyraja and Mr. Zahid Raza. Other key guests included Professor James Arrighi, the President and CEO of the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education International (ACGME-I), Dr Laura Edgar, Vice President of ACGME-I and Professor John Norcini, President Emeritus FAIMER. Active participation by the dedicated faculty of AKU, RCSEd and the academic leaders from around the globe along with the postgraduate trainees made this event a great success and laid the foundation for further development of competency based curricula in the region for postgraduate programs.
AKU is always looking towards partnerships with the international leaders in medical education. This close partnership between the AKU's PGME and CIME, and the RCSEd is a testament to the organisation's commitment to providing high-quality education and training to surgeons from across Pakistan. The university believes that this partnership will help to improve the quality of surgical education and training in Pakistan and will ultimately benefit the patients and aspiring trainees.
