Medical College, Visakhapatnam

The Medical College at Visakhapatnam was a college of medicine for the Telugu districts.¹² The Madras government opened it in 1923, at the request of the people of these districts.¹ Its students took the medical degree of the Andhra University.²³

Founding

According to the Andhra University’s register for 1939–40, the Madras government decided in 1923 to set up a medical college at Visakhapatnam.¹ It did so in answer to a request from the people of the Telugu districts.¹ The college opened in July 1923, in the old hospital buildings.¹ The official review Progress of Education in India, 1922–27 also dates the new medical college at Visakhapatnam to 1923.²

A degree not yet recognised

The college’s degree was at first not accepted in Britain.² In the 1920s the General Medical Council there refused to recognise the M.B.B.S. degree of the Andhra University, the degree of the Visakhapatnam college.² Its students could sit the first examination for the F.R.C.S. (Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons) of England.¹

Students

The college admitted only 50 students a year, for a total of 300.¹ The Madras government ordered that students from the Telugu districts should be preferred.¹ Women also studied medicine there.⁴ In 1928–29 there were 74 women in the two medical colleges of the Presidency, at Madras and Visakhapatnam.⁴ One scholarship, from the Countess of Dufferin’s Fund, was kept for a woman student.⁵

In 1939–40 the college had 391 students in its five years.⁵ A hostel in the hospital compound had room for 48 of them.⁵ The library held over 6,600 books and took 95 journals.⁵ There was not yet a sports ground of its own.⁵

The hospital

Students learned at the bedside in a large hospital of more than 300 beds.¹ A maternity unit of 40 beds and an eye unit were added.¹ The register names the diseases most often treated there:¹

beri-beri and other diseases caused by poor food¹
elephantiasis¹
cataract¹
long-lasting ulcers of the gut¹

There were also departments for tuberculosis, skin, teeth, bones, and ear, nose and throat.¹ By 1939, three new blocks of buildings had been built, and more were planned.¹

Staff

The college was run by a principal and a council of its senior teachers, under the Surgeon-General of Madras.¹ In 1939–40 the principal was Major J. F. Shepherd of the Indian Medical Service.⁶ Most of the teachers were Indian doctors trained at Madras and abroad.⁶

Where the sources disagree

No disagreement was found among the sources used for this page.

Andhra University: The Annual Register 1939–40, p. 332 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸
Progress of Education in India, 1922–27 (Ninth Quinquennial Review), Vol. I, p. 191 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Andhra University: The Annual Register 1939–40 (1939), p. 302, list of colleges (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩
Report on Public Instruction in the Madras Presidency for 1928–29, Vol. I, p. 11 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Andhra University: The Annual Register 1939–40, p. 333 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Andhra University: The Annual Register 1939–40, p. 334, teaching staff (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²