Hi guys. In this week’s edition of Newsweek , a short interesting news article was published. Here is a copy paste (I hope I am not infringing any copyrights).
In reply to:
Raffling off classroom seats to wealthy foreigners could save struggling American schools.
Here’s one idea for state universities feeling the pinch of budget cuts: sell a few admission spots to overseas bidders. That’s what Dalhousie University’s medical school in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is planning to do. The Canadian med school, which is government subsidized, will hawk 10 first-year spaces at $75,000 each to Saudi Arabia to gin up cash after having lost some funding. Tom Marrie, dean of the med school, tried to ease any concerns. The students “will arrive speaking fluent English and with degrees from North American universities, so we are confident they will fit in well with our student body,†Marrie said.
75K a seat for foreigners. It seems that this will not be for sale for US students (at least nothing is said about it). That's interesting. What do you guys think? Will the practice become standard in Canada and possibly in the US?
I agree that ethically this is very concerning. And why Saudis only? It sounds like a discrimination or perhaps there would be some sort of agreement with the country (i.e. MDs go back or something???)
Although we don’t know if 1) the candidates are qualified (other than from a financial standpoint) and 2) if these spots are extra or reduce the already limited pool. On the bright side, when you go the the admission site of the university, they seem to be OPM friendly:
In reply to:
We regularly accept individuals who have had other careers and choose to enter medicine later in life. We are delighted to handle inquiries from such individuals who may need some counseling for preparation for application.
So the bottom line is if you are an OPM, rich and Saudi, your chances are good.
Actually this bothers me a lot! I am from Canada and have a feeling that someone somehwere is going to challenge the legality of this. All of our schools are public, which makes me wonder how this is at all legal.
On the other hand, it’s a bit of a fallicy (at least in a few provinces) that we have too few med school spots. Most in-province schools accept about half of the in-province applicants (much, much higher than US stats). Yes, there should be more spots, but I am not sure there are enough Canadians in each province to fill them.
Purely my opinion and conjecture, but I’m always right We’re only going to see more US seats when medicare lifts it’s spending cap to pay for more residency spots OR we see some more residency spots get financed by pharma/medical/insurance companies (which gives me the creeps).
Hi guys. In this week's edition of Newsweek , a short interesting news article was published. Here is a copy paste (I hope I am not infringing any copyrights).
In reply to:
Raffling off classroom seats to wealthy foreigners could save struggling American schools.
Here’s one idea for state universities feeling the pinch of budget cuts: sell a few admission spots to overseas bidders. That’s what Dalhousie University’s medical school in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is planning to do. The Canadian med school, which is government subsidized, will hawk 10 first-year spaces at $75,000 each to Saudi Arabia to gin up cash after having lost some funding. Tom Marrie, dean of the med school, tried to ease any concerns. The students “will arrive speaking fluent English and with degrees from North American universities, so we are confident they will fit in well with our student body,†Marrie said.
75K a seat for foreigners. It seems that this will not be for sale for US students (at least nothing is said about it). That's interesting. What do you guys think? Will the practice become standard in Canada and possibly in the US?
Before the concerns of ethics fly too fast and furious, the rest of the story should be considered
In reply to:
In a somewhat unusual circumstance, the school had some extra spaces for students at its Halifax campus after it opened a satellite facility in the neighboring province of New Brunswick. However, the Nova Scotia government has refused to pay for any additional students, so that left 10 unfilled seats in Halifax for this fall. Selling those unsubsidized seats to Saudi students is a win for all, according to the dean.
(from the Chronicle of Higher Education, Friday, April 1, 2011) Link Full Story
It appears that this may be a political blustering within Dalhousie to get the Nova Scotia Providential Government to pay up for students.
We’re only going to see more US seats when medicare lifts it’s spending cap to pay for more residency spots OR we see some more residency spots get financed by pharma/medical/insurance companies (which gives me the creeps).