Thumbay Group-UAE to set-up Gulf Medical University Kabul Afghanistan

Thumbay Group-UAE has signed a MOU with the Afghanistan Government to set up Gulf Medical University in Kabul. The university will start functioning by the first quarter of 2004. This was stated officially by Thumbay Moideen, President of the group, in a press release issued from their office.

A high-level delegation led by Dr. Sharif Fayz, Minister for Higher Education,Government of Afghanistan visited UAE to have discussions with the Thumbay Group about setting up of the university in Kabul. The university will comprise of medical college and a teaching hospital. Apart from this the Afghan government has requested support and guidance of Thumbay Holdings International (THI) to run two major hospitals. THI will lend its expertise in running these hospitals professionally. THI is an internationally known company, offering consultancy in designing, construction and hospital management.

Afghanistan Government has assured of its complete support in establishing the first private university after the recent war. ‘It is our commitment to our people to provide high quality education’, said Dr. Fayz.

The first batch of students can begin their MBBS course by March 2004. Certain percentage of seats will be reserved for economically weaker students from Afghanistan. The teaching faculty is being sourced from various countries and teaching methodology will be of international standards.
Dr. Fayz also encouraged to start para-medical courses like nursing, pharmacy and technical courses for dieticians and laboratory technicians.

Gulf Medical University will be affiliated to the Gulf Medical College Ajman, UAE, which is also promoted by Thumbay Group.

A Board of Trustees is formed under the chairmanship of Thumbay Moideen, with Ahmed Hajee Mohiudeen as the patron. Prof. T .L. Parthasarthy will be the Vice President, Prof. S. Rangaswami, Prof. Aksam Yassin, Dr. Omar Kharhan, Dr. K.R. Shetty, B. Abdul Salam and B.M. Ashraf will be the members on the board. The board will also have two nominated members each from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Higher Education, Government of Afghanistan.

A high level executive committee is also set up to make further studies for implementation of the project. The team is headed by Thumbay Moideen, Prof T .K. Parthasarthy, Prof. S. Rangaswami, Eng. Nasser, Farhad C. and Vignesh Unadkat; all experts in their respective fields will lend their professional experience as members of the committee.

Our group has been invited to set up institutions of higher education, by various governments from within UAE and abroad. Based on our experts’ appraisal and certain other criteria, we chose Afghanistan as our first choice for expansion based on the unstinted cooperation and support promised by the Afghanistan government. ‘We are happy to start a college in Kabul, Afghanistan. With it’s present state of affairs needs strong reconstruction activities and we are proud to partner with their government in shaping the future of their children’, said Moideen.