THE MEDICAL SCHOOL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25459, 14 February 1944, Page 2

THE MEDICAL SCHOOL

LIMITATION OF STUDENTS NUMBER FIXED AT 120 A YEAR METHOD OF PREFERENCE Replying to statements made at Auckland by Mr R. M. Algie, M.P. for Remuera, concerning the limitation of admissions to the Medical School in Dunedin, Mr H. Chapman, registrar of the University of Otago, outlines the present circumstances relating to the medical course. Mr Chapman’s statement is as follows: — “ The first year of the medical course may be taken at any of the four university colleges—Otago, Auckland, Victoria, and Canterbury—and at the end of the year students take the intermediate examination, the passing of which qualifies for admission to the second year. For the second and succeeding years a student must come to Otago, but accommodation at the Medical School for students in the second and succeeding years is sufficient for 120 students per annum only. Order of Preference

“This fact was announced at the beginning of the year 1943, and must have been known to all first-year students of medicine in the four colleges. Despite this fact, some 275 students embarked on the first year of the course. Tire number of students who actually applied for admission to the second year of the classes of the Medical School was ISC, and students were accepted according to the following preferences:— “ (a) Students who had been in the second year in 1943, but who had failed to pass the annual examination, but had been recommended by the faculty for readmission. The number of these was 12.

“ (b) Graduates of the University of New Zealand who had passed the necessary qualifying examinations. Nine of these were accepted. “ (c) Students whose course had been seriously interfered with by war service, provided that they had passed the necessary qualifying examinations. Three were accepted under this head, and the cases of three others were reserved for further information as to their war service. “ (d) Students who had applied at the beginning of 1943, having the necessary qualifications, but whom it was then found impossible to admit. The number accepted under this head was three. “ (e) Students who had passed at the intermediate examination held at the end of 1943, or in any previous year, students being accepted strictly in order of merit. Ninety-one were accepted under this head. “The total number under the above arrangement is 118, and there are three applications still to be considered. Students Not Admitted “ Of the students who had passed at the intermediate examination at the end of 1943, 24 had to be declined. Of this number, 6 were from Auckland, 1 from Victoria College, 3 from Canterbury, and 14 from Otggo. “ Since it was found impossible to accept all the students who had passed at the intermediate examination held at the end of 1943 the University Council had been forced to decline all the applications from students who had passed the special examination held in February, 1944. “Applications for admission to the school did not close till January 15, and students had been informed that notification of the results of their applications could be expected early in February. Notices to the successful students had been posted on Friday. Feb-ruai-y 4, and to those unsuccessful on February 5.” Dr Hercus’s Statement A reply to Mr Algie’s criticism has also been made by Dr C. E. Hercus, dean of the Medical Faculty at the University of Otago, who states:— “Mr Algie’s protest at the limitation of admissions of students to the Medical School gives a very distorted and incomplete picture of the problem. He has completely overlooked the main issues involved. This is not only an Auckland, but a Dominion, problem. “Exemption from war service is granted to medical students for the duration of their course—at least six years. It is evident that this exemption cannot be granted to every student who is desirous of entering medical studies. The number must be based on the urgent requirements of New Zealand. would be unfair to their comrades m arms to give this long exemption from war service to all who passed the qualifying medical examinations. No case can be made out for giving all a chance. There is no war exemption for those who wish to study arts, law, commerce, etc. It must be agreed that the country can afford to give war exemption only to the number of students urgently required to maintain the medical services of the Dominion. The remainder are urgently needed for war services, where they can play their part after only a few months’ training. “On what basis is the entry limited to 120 students a year? Admittedly the large call-up of doctors has caused a grave shortage of medical practitioners in this country. Fortunately this shortage is now £* its most acute phase, because recruitment is being more than compensated by the output from the Medical School. Danger of Overcrowding “It must also be remembered that increasing numbers of second-year students will do nothing to relieve this shortage for at least five years. Meanwhile we expect the war to be over and the returned doctors to have resumed practice. A comprehensive analysis based on the present numbers of medical students shows that the shortage of doctors will then practically have disappeared. f , “ Further, if the rate of entry of even 100 a year into the Medical School is sustained, a glut in doctors will then rapidly supervene, even on the most generous allowance of medical seryices to the public. As after the last war many returned men will elect to study medicine. Are they to be faced on graduation with a profession already gravely overcrowded by those who spent their war years as medical students? The present level of medical students has to be kept down to a minimal level, and we now see that the present limit of 120 admissions a year to the Medical School errs if anything in being too generous. “ Comparison with the position in other countries supports this conclusion. In Great Britain the limit is set at the pre-war rate of entry to the Medical School, and in Australia exemption from war service is granted only to the estimated number of doctors required by the State.”