“JNU Academic Council unanimously approved, as per the provisions of JNU Act 1966, establishing a School of Medical Sciences and an attached Hospital with broad and super speciality departments including supporting and non-conventional departments,” according to JNU vice chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar.

In a media statement, JNU also said this school will offer several courses like PhD, MD, MS, and MBBS degree programs, “with an emphasis on modern medicine integrated with traditional medicine and knowledge system from humanities and social sciences”.

The Delhi based university also said JNU has a strong tradition of basic and applied research in biomedical sciences, “which will be integrated with the clinical research, giving a holistic perspective of the medical sciences.”

There are not many government-run conventional Indian universities which has a medical college attached to it. However, institutions like Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has a medical college and Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur too has a school of medical science.

JNU however, did not give details about the timeline of establishing such a school and how much fund will be spent on the new project.