Introduction

Jahurul Islam Medical College was established by Jahurul Islam in 1992, and it is the second oldest private medical college in Bangladesh which is located at the village of Bhagalpur, in Bajitpur Upazila of Kishoreganj District. It is the first medical school situated in the rural area of the country which has an area of about 52.62 acres and affiliated with the University of Dhaka as a constituent college.

University offers a five-year course of study which leads to a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree and also a year of internship after graduation is compulsory for all graduates. University’s degree is recognized by the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council.

Jahurul Islam is an industrialist and philanthropist who set up several healthcare organizations through the Aftab-Rahima Welfare Trust, in his home village of Bhagalpur. In 1989, the first two were initially a 250 bedded hospital that would become Jahurul Islam Medical College Hospital and Jahurul Islam Nursing Training Institute. Jahurul Islam Medical College followed in 1992.

This college is located in the village of Bhagalpur which is about 500 meters (1600 ft) from Bajitpur Railway Station. Within the self-contained campus which is arranged among gardens around an S-shaped lake, there is an academic building, and separate hostels for men and women, staff quarters, and Jahurul Islam Medical College Hospital is the college of 390-bed teaching hospital but in the final phase of hospital construction it will expand its capacity to 500 beds.

Another Nursing Training Institute shares the campus and it is approved by the Bangladesh Nursing Council and the Directorate of Nurses Services (DNS).

As a constituent college, it is affiliated with Dhaka University and the chairman of the college is Manzurul Islam. Syed Mahmudul Aziz is the principal of the college.

The college offers a five-year degree course which is approved by the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC) and leads to a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree from Dhaka University. Also after passing the final exams, there is a compulsory one year internship and this internship is a prerequisite for obtaining registration from the BMDC to practice medicine. The calendar of academics runs from January to December. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare capped admission and tuition fees at private medical colleges i.e. 1,990,000 Bangladeshi taka (US$25,750 as of 2014), which is a total for their five-year courses in October 2014.

Admission for Bangladeshis to the MBBS program is conducted centrally by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) for all medical colleges in Bangladesh (government and private). There is a written multiple choice question exam simultaneously throughout the country and candidates admissions are based primarily on their score on this test, although grades at Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC) level also play a part. In this examination, 50% of seats are reserved for foreign students and their admissions are on the basis of their SSC and HSC grades. Mostly foreign students are from India and Nepal. The college is allowed to admit 100 students annually as of July 2014.