Rethinking of admissions criteria “critical"
- By Vivienne Rowland
Infrastructure needs, resources, the changing skills sets of doctors and the dire need for health care services in rural areas are some of the reasons which necessitate a rethink of the admissions criteria for the MBBCh degree at Wits.
This is according to Professor Adam Habib, Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal, who was speaking at a public meeting to discuss the current and future admissions criteria and policies for entry into the MBBCh, or medicine degree, which was held on Tuesday, 8 April 2014.
“We need to rethink admissions – we cannot wish our history away and we cannot assume we have an equal playing field. We want to be a globally competitive institution, and we have to ensure that we get the balance right,” said Habib.
“Currently, we are producing less than 30% of the number of doctors needed each year. We need to upgrade our infrastructure and training facilities and aim to establish a successful private-public partnership which will allow us to do that.” Habib alluded to the fact that he mentioned the need for an infrastructure upgrade to the Minister of Health recently.
The Vice-Chancellor was assisted by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic and Deputy Principal, Professor Andrew Crouch, and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Professor Zeblon Vilakazi. Crouch and Vilakazi, together with members of a special task team, have been commissioned to review the admissions criteria.
Crouch presented the current situation pertaining to admissions for the MBBCh degree and said that a review of admissions criteria every few years was a normal process for any institution.
“Our recommendations will be based on fact. Admissions requirements should ideally be reviewed every five years to ensure that they still speak to the needs of society,” said Crouch.
He said that the decision to rethink the admissions criteria for the MBBCh degree was informed by a myriad of factors. The task team found that a biographical questionnaire given to prospective medical students favoured the already privileged students; that the majority of students accepted hailed from urban environments in mainly Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga; that without some weighting for education and social disadvantage the racial composition of candidates in the programme would be more than 90% Indian and white candidates; that there was a dire need for health services in rural areas; and that Cuban doctors would soon have to be taken into account.
Habib invited robust discussion and tough questions “to allow the process to be as open as possible and to ensure that we take everything into account when we make a decision on whether to change the admission criteria”.
Audience members asked for clarification and explanations, and made suggestions on matters concerning the nationality of applicants, current scoring criteria, grading, race, Grade 10 and Grade 11 examinations marks to be taken into consideration, credibility of pass rate of admission tests, the possibility of accepting students with a non-science background, a possible face-to-face interview process for applicants and social justice issues, the possibility of evening classes for MBBCh students, and the evaluation of medical degrees obtained abroad, amongst others.
Habib also urged students to exercise their second and third career study options when applying to Wits. “It is important to recognise that young people need to think through what they really want to do with their lives. Utilise your second and third options on your application. Do not see medicine as the only option, you are restricting your own maturity. Medicine is a grand career, but there are many other grand options,” he said.
The Vice-Chancellor took a firm stand on allegations of bribery for spaces in the medical school and said that it was viewed in a very serious light. “If anyone is found to have taken money in exchange for a space for a student to study medicine, that person will be dismissed immediately. If you make a claim to that effect, it will be investigated. If your claim has merit, action will be taken. If you make false allegations found to be without proof, action will be taken against you,” said Habib.
The public discussion was attended by more than 300 members of the public, students and staff members at Wits.
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