Letters | Can’t get into medical school in Asia? Try Europe or the Caribbean for cutting-edge skills
- Asia’s limited training places mean many talented would-be doctors are turned away. But medical schools outside the region can offer opportunities
Students across Asia face a major problem: medical schools can accommodate just a tiny fraction of applicants. Consider the long odds that aspiring doctors face in Singapore: The Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore accepted just 300 of the more than 2,000 students who applied in 2017. The Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine accepted less than one in 10 applicants that year.
The odds are just as low for students in Hong Kong. The Chinese University of Hong Kong only accepted about one in 10 applicants to its six-year medical programme in 2017.
Fortunately, there are plenty of high-calibre schools outside Asia where would-be doctors can pursue their dreams. Several international medical schools in the Caribbean, Europe and elsewhere offer rigorous, top-notch education. For the past eight years, 95 per cent of graduates at the school I lead in Grenada have passed the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), one of the toughest in the world, on their first try. That is the same pass rate achieved by graduates of US and Canadian medical schools.
Many schools around the world view the USMLE as a gold standard. The International Medical University in Malaysia, for example, is offering courses preparing students for the USMLE so they can become better doctors. And schools in China, like the Shantou University Medical College, encourage students to train for the USMLE.
Asia’s medical schools do not have the capacity to educate all the talented students who want to become doctors. Fortunately, opportunity abounds elsewhere.
Dr G. Richard Olds, president, St George’s University, Grenada