The Board of the Integrated Masters in Medicine (MIM) at the University of Algarve has already resumed its functions, after reaching an agreement with the institution's dean João Guerreiro.
The head of the university "accepted to reformulate the clause that caused so much disagreement" and, as a result of this approach, the outgoing management and Executive Group will send a new letter withdrawing the resignations that had been addressed to him.
Ao Sul Informação, João Guerreiro considered the controversy as "part of the past" and revealed that he himself reformulated the clause, in order to clarify the competences of each of the parties, guaranteeing pedagogical independence, without interfering "in the Hospital's internal mechanism" .
"In this clause I propose that invitations are always made at the initiative of the university, but that it is up to the Hospital's management to authorize or not the arrival of the doctors under its charge."
“Basically, the big difference is that now the resolution of the authorization problem is referred to the invited specialist”, the same thing that happens in the relationship “with all the other guests and institutions”, stressed the Rector. «When a professor from UAlg is invited to be present somewhere, he also asks me for permission. Of course, I have never denied any request, but it is part of it», he exemplified.
In this way, a controversy that raised fears about the continuity of the course is resolved. This is because it is the direction that organizes the different pedagogical activities, including seminars with external experts, which are an integral part of the innovative pedagogical model used at UAlg.
The seminars were, moreover, at the center of the situation that led to the resignation of the board. Last Thursday, the day they made the request to the Rector, the MIM professors explained that they were doing so because they considered that their pedagogical autonomy was at stake.
The bone of contention was a clause in a protocol that will be signed with the Centro Hospitalar do Algarve, which João Guerreiro "accepted to reformulate", in order to clarify that "the course directors' contacts with CHA specialists are totally independent" from the directions of the hospital unit, according to the director of the UAlg Medicine Course Isabel Palmeirim.
“We have no question of talking to service directors and we will continue to do so. What we didn't want was to have to submit our choice and submit it to those responsible for the CHA», he explained.
With the guarantee given "on the word of honor" by João Guerreiro, the MIM leaders consider the matter closed. "For us, that is enough," said Isabel Palmeirim. The Rector is now awaiting the letter in which the board withdraws the resignation "with justification", something that was also agreed at the meeting between the two parties.
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