HPCZ will not recognize students graduating from suspended programmes at CBU

The Health Professions Council of Zambia (HPCZ) says it will not recognize the students that will graduate from the three medical programmes it has suspended at the Copperbelt University.

This follows the decision by the Higher Education Authority to overrule the decision by the HPCZ to suspend the programme for failure to meet set standards.

Registrar Aaron Mujajati says as far as the council is concerned, the running of bachelor of medicine, bachelor of surgery and bachelor of dental surgery learning programmes remain suspended.

Dr. mujajati says the act establishing the HPCZ empowers it to suspend the running of learning programmes that do not meet the required standards.

He says this means that while the High Education Authority (HEA) is the custodian of all high learning institutions in the country, the health professions act empowers the HPCZ to be the regulator.

Dr. Mujajati states that what the Copperbelt University should have done in this case is to meet the HPCZ and agree on how deficiencies in its suspended learning programmes can be addressed.

He has since indicated that the council will appeal to the attorney general to seek guidance on the respective acts of parliament upon which the HPCZ and HEA have been established.

Dr. Mujajati says the HPCZ does not want to be seen as being in a fight with the HEA.