Graduate

The Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) takes considerable pride in providing strong support to the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) PhD degree programme. The programme is organised and governed by a Committee, advisory to the Dean, Medical College , whose members are drawn from numerous sources linked to basic and clinical sciences. To date, all chairs of the Committee have been Professors in the Department of BBS. In the academic year 2004-5, six department members have seats in the Committee, assuring strong representation of biomedical science in curricular and research agendas. Since the programme inception, department faculty have taught and administered core and elective courses for PhD candidates. Students have selected department members as thesis supervisors, taking advantage of the high profile research offered in Department Laboratories.

The programme is relatively new and the number of PhD candidates has been kept intentionally small, although current plans call for an expansion of PhD student enrollments. Continued growth of departmental research augers well for the future of the PhD programme. The reverse, of course, is also true. Successful expansion of the PhD programme will infuse novel ideas and expand methodologic repertories creating a positive impact on the quality and quantity of ongoing research. The department and the programme will go forward, each complementing the other to the benefit of both.