Address by Governor and Chancellor of Universities at the inauguration of the MUHS International Education Hub and MoU Exchange Ceremony at Sahyadri State Guest House, Malabar Hill, Mumbai 400006

Shri Devendra Fadnavis, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra, His Excellency Mr Paul Papalia MP, Minister for Tourism, Government of Western Australia, Shri Girish Mahajan, Hon’ble Minister of Medical Education and Pro-Chancellor of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Shri Ravindra Chavan, Minister of State for Medical Education, Prof. Dr Deelip Mhaisekar, Vice Chancellor, MUHS, Prof. Dr Mohan Khamgaonkar, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Members of the Diplomatic Community, delegates from foreign universities and institutes, senior government officials, distinguished invitees,

I am indeed very happy to be here with you for the inauguration of the International Education Hub conceptualized by the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences.

I am also happy that a Memorandum of Understanding is being signed between MUHS and an Institute from Western Australia.

I acknowledge with pleasure the presence of His Excellency Mr Paul Papalia MP, the Hon’ble Minister for Tourism, Government of Western Australia on this significant occasion.

I congratulate the Maharashtra University of Health Science and particularly Vice Chancellor Dr Deelip Mhaisekar for this excellent initiative which has the potential to open up immense possibilities for our students, teachers, researchers and for our people at large.

The launching of the International Education Hub is taking place at the most appropriate juncture. Today nations of the world are forming alliances and groups to achieve larger strategic and economic goals.

In fact there is hardly any nation in the world which is not a member of one group or the other.

Today students are demanding international learning experience and it is only appropriate that we endeavor to meet their expectations.

Only 2 days ago there was a news of 23 Indian Institutes of Technology in the country joining hands to improve their global ranking. The Ministry of Human Resource Development has advised the IITs to put up a collective front and collaborate during their visits to foreign campuses and research organizations to recruit foreign faculties, including research scholars of Indian origin.

I do feel that time has come for all Indian Health Science organizations to make a similar collaborative efforts to improve their global ranking through improvement in the quality of Health Science Education, teaching and research. The signing of Memorandum of Understanding is an affirmative step towards achieving this goal and I welcome it wholeheartedly.

Indian doctors and surgeons are regarded as the best in the world. It fills our heart with pride when we see our doctors and surgeons having become integral part of the healthcare system in the United States of America, in the United Kingdom and in many other countries.

While our doctors are meeting the healthcare requirements of other countries, we, in India, are facing an acute shortage of qualified doctors.

According to statistics, there are 7 physicians per 10,000 population in India, compared to 15 in China, 25 in United States, 28 in the UK and 43 in Russia. The biggest challenge for us is to produce more qualified and better trained doctors.

Secondly, we need to further improve in the areas of research and teaching. Academic and research collaboration will definitely help in bringing about improvement in these two areas. Academic collaboration will prove to be beneficial to the faculty in learning new teaching methodologies. It will also help students in increasing the breadth of their knowledge and learning different approaches to solving a problem.

The field of medical science has been witnessing path-breaking advancements. These advancements have changed the ways diseases are diagnosed and cured. We must be able to incorporate these advancements in the syllabus to keep our Medical students update and abreast of newer advancements.

Many Indian students are pursuing MBBS courses in other countries. Time has come for our universities to attract foreign students to our universities to pursue MBBS and post graduate programmes.

As Chancellor of the University of Health Sciences, I have great expectations from the University.

I wish and hope that increased student-exchange, faculty-exchange, research collaborations, scholarships and joint conducting of educational programmes will become a reality with the launching of the International Education Hub.

I congratulate MUHS once again and wish the university well, in its future endeavours.

Thank you

Jai Hind ! Jai Maharashtra !!