The Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Algarve (UAlg) will be born. The creation of this new organic unit has already been approved by an order, signed this Friday, 20 September, by Manuel Heitor, Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education.
The proposal was put to vote by Paulo Águas, dean of UAlg, in the last General Council, having been unanimously approved. Afterwards, he went to the Ministry, where he also had a positive response.
The Faculty will be installed in the Medicine Building, built in 2015. As for the creation of a degree in Medicine, it is not on the table – nor will it be a solution. What will keep is the Integrated Masters in Medicine (MIM) which is celebrating 10 years of existence.
Speaking to our newspaper, Paulo Águas said that this is “clearly good news for the University of Algarve”.
The creation of this new Faculty was in the rector's candidacy plan and, therefore, the person in charge welcomes this decision.
"The situation we had was relatively atypical and resulted from the fact that the operation of the medical course was authorized after we had approved the statutes in 2009," he told the Sul Informação.
The six courses in these areas are currently under the responsibility of the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine (DCBM) and not an organic unit.
Now, "the time has come when, to continue the project and give it greater projection, it is believed that this set of courses should have the same framework as the others and hence the option to create the Faculty," he explained.
This all happens at a time when the UAlg Integrated Masters in Medicine (MIM) is celebrating 10 years – “and of successes”.
In the document that he took to the General Council, and that the Sul Informação had access, Paulo Águas referred precisely to this round date (and to the good results that the MIM has achieved), as well as to the importance that the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine (DCBM) already has at UAlg – «six training offers, 151 teachers and almost 450 students».
UAlg's MIM has also contributed, in the opinion of the rector, in a «very positive way to the establishment of doctors in the Algarve» and to «improving the quality of healthcare and associated research, namely through the training of about 250 new doctors, of which around 50% currently work in the Algarve region'.
Added to this equation is the fact that the Clinical Academic Center was created, Algarve Biomedical Center (consortium between the University of the Algarve and the Centro Hospital Universitário do Algarve), which highlights the need to create the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
Minister Manuel Heitor had also already revealed his support for the creation of this organic novelty. According to the document by Paulo Águas, the government official, "consulted on this matter on July 17, not only expressed his support, but also expressed his desire for the current situation to be regularized as soon as possible."
Now, legal procedures are followed by the formalization of the new Faculty with the publication in Diário da República. Afterwards, the provisional statutes will be created, at the headquarters of the General Council, and everything will culminate in an electoral process to decide who will be the director of the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
Paulo Águas estimates that this entire process will still take “a few months”, but hopes that everything will be completed “still before 2020”.
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