Top-performing South African medical students are leaving to study abroad, as acceptance rates at local medical schools are reported to be as low as 5%.
Admissions consultancy Crimson Education Country Manager Brad Latilla-Campbell told Moneyweb Radio that the number of positions available to medical students makes medical programs at South African universities highly competitive.
“In lots of other programmes, if you get enough points, if you get your APS (Admission Point Score) and you get enough points to get in, you’ll get into that degree,” said Latilla-Campbell.
“But medicine is different. If you get enough points, you won’t necessarily get in. They can only take, as you say, the top 5% or 6%,” he said.
Latilla-Campbell said this means the extremely academically strong students are self-selected; however, it leaves little space for students who are not achieving 85% and 90% averages.
“So there are a lot of students who are passionate about medicine, passionate about becoming doctors and medical professionals who just don’t have any space to get in,” he said.
This bottleneck affects people who are passionate about pursuing a medical degree and career but cannot do so because of their high school marks, which Latilla-Campbell said is not the best way to determine who is best suited for this job.
According to experts such as Latilla-Campbell, South Africa now has enough students who are capable of pursuing a medical degree.
As a result, students can consider studying at universities overseas, particularly in Europe. After earning their degrees abroad, they can return to South Africa and practice medicine.
Latilla-Campbell said that this is an excellent option for many students interested in studying medicine but unable to gain admission to programs in their home country.
Concerns with studying abroad
A concern with studying abroad is that the students choose to remain overseas after their studies. Despite this, Latilla-Campbell said some students have chosen to return to South Africa.
“From what we’ve seen, there is definitely a push, especially for people who are minded in the medical space to go into that, to help people, to provide for the community, to want to come back,” he said.
“They might take a year or two or three or four after graduation. It might take some time.”
A growing concern is the two-tier system, where wealthy students can go abroad, and all the other students get left behind.
Latilla-Campbell said that this problem is addressed by South Africa having strong medical programmes available.
“This is specifically for students who maybe can’t get into the programmes here. It is giving a second option, a secondary route to that medical profession that wouldn’t necessarily be available here,” said Latilla-Campbell.
“Unfortunately, that probably is going to cost some money. But some schools and programmes do have scholarship and bursary options available overseas, which students can take advantage of as well.”
Latilla-Campbell said the highly competitive programmes could be healthy for any sort of industry or profession, as this guarantees the best candidates are selected for the “hardest” jobs.
“So creating that competitiveness ensures that students who want to go and who are going are aiming to get the very top marks, the very top qualifications out of high school, to keep up that high level of achievement.”
Latilla-Campbell mentioned that there is an inevitable trade-off involved. Students who earn medical degrees in South Africa often leave the country.
This migration, he believes, contributes more to a brain drain than if those students pursued their degrees abroad and potentially returned to South Africa afterwards.
