Faculty at AIIMS-Delhi says name must not change

New Delhi: Faculty Association of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (FAIMS), Delhi has urged the union minister of health and family welfare to not consider any proposal for changing the name of the institute.

Any attempt to do so will lead to the loss of identity of the institution and its recognition both in India and abroad, the association stated.

Earlier this month, the association had sought the opinion of its members on this issue and the entire faculty unanimously opposed the proposal of changing the name of the institute. Hence, FAIMS wrote a letter to the minister on Thursday stating that they believe that “AIIMS Delhi will face severe loss of identity and demoralisation if the name is changed”.

“Identity is linked with the name. If identity is lost, institutional recognition is lost both within the country and outside,” the letter read, adding that is why famous and established institutes like Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard universities have retained their name for centuries.

The letter signed by the president, FAIMS, Prof Achal Kumar Srivastava, further stated that in India, IITs have a name recognition, which gives them an institution's identity and there should be no proposal to change it.

The same is applied for IIMs. In fact, Indian Institute of Science, which celebrated its 100 years of productive life, also has not changed its name.

“The sense of identity is so strong that Calcutta, Bombay and Madras universities continue with the same name even though the cities they are located in have changed names to Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai,” the letter stated.

FAIMS general secretary Dr Harshal Ramesh Salve said that AIIMS was created in 1956 with a trinity of mission for medical education, research and patient care.

The institute’s brand has been created by fulfilling this mission with dedicated efforts of its faculty members, residents, students and staff members over the years.