Punjab’s over 200 medical institutions shift to online teaching

2026-03-10 - 14:24

The University of Health Sciences (UHS) has ordered an immediate and comprehensive transition to online teaching across all its campuses and more than 200 affiliated and constituent colleges. With disruptions to regional oil and gas supply chains sending energy prices spiralling, Punjab has issued an emergency directive temporarily suspending physical classes at higher educational institutions across the province. UHS has moved swiftly to implement the provincial order, issuing a formal notification effective from Tuesday, March 10, through to March 31, 2026. Faculty must prepare their online lectures and assignments carefully and engage students fully so that there is no academic loss. This is not a holiday; it is a shift in the mode of delivery, and we expect the same academic rigour online as in the classroom.” UHS Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ahsan Waheed Rathore, made the remarks while chairing a meeting of the Administrative and Academic Advisory Committee (AAAC) at the university’s Jinnah Campus. Earlier, in a directive, Prof Rathore ordered the development and immediate operationalisation of a robust and efficient centralised monitoring system to be housed at UHS. The system will enable constant, real-time oversight of online teaching activity across all affiliated institutions and constituent colleges for medical, dental, nursing, pharmacy, and allied health sciences programmes. Heads of departments and institutional academic coordinators have been tasked with ensuring faculty participation, tracking student attendance, and submitting periodic compliance reports directly to UHS Lahore. A dedicated digital infrastructure at UHS will allow administrators to monitor the regularity of classes, faculty engagement, and student participation on an ongoing basis, with non-compliance treated as a serious regulatory breach. The UHS notification covers teaching in basic sciences modules, pre-clinical and para-clinical subjects, non-clinical semester courses, and the theoretical components of clinical subjects. All major health professions degree programmes fall within its scope, including MBBS, BDS, BS Nursing and Post-RN, Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT), Pharmacy, and Allied Health Sciences. Critically, the university has drawn a clear line around clinical training activities. Ward duties, patient care, and clinical rotations are explicitly exempt from the blanket suspension, and individual institutions have been empowered to regulate these separately in accordance with applicable safety advisories. Institutions may deliver classes through Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, and institutional learning management systems such as Moodle, or other institutionally approved platforms. The university’s Standard Operating Procedures require that online lectures be 30 to 45 minutes in duration, with adequate breaks between sessions, and that existing timetables be preserved with minimal alteration. Faculty have been instructed to adopt interactive digital teaching methods, including case-based discussions, problem-based learning sessions, virtual demonstrations, and recorded lectures, and to share materials such as slides, reading resources, and assignments through digital platforms to facilitate continuous, structured learning. Attendance is to be recorded electronically via LMS logs, platform attendance reports, and participation in online assessments. Islamabad’s pollen concentrations still high, despite rains