Medicine, dentistry ‘foundation year’ causes uproar among students

AMMAN — As the University of Jordan (UJ) and Jordan University of Science and Technology plan to start the implementation of a “foundation year” for medicine and dentistry majors, students on Thursday voiced their rejection of the decision, describing it as “unjust” for public school-based university applicants.

The foundation year, according to assistant dean at the faculty of medicine, Nafez Abu Tarboush, will include introductory medical courses to give students general knowledge on the majors they seek to pursue. 

According to the instructions issued by the university, the courses for the year will include: Medical physics, introduction to medicine and dentistry, biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, English, general anatomy, cell biology, biochemistry, physiology and an elective university course.

This, however, will not add additional semesters to the studying duration, but will be part of the total credit hours on the study plan should students get accepted in the medical programme, Abu Tarboush explained. 

The overall average score for the foundation year must be over 50 per cent for students to be accepted into a medical field, the university professor explained.

Medical student Zaid Khatib, who is the vice president of the student union at UJ, said that the decision, which is expected to be implemented at the autumn semester of 2018/2019, illustrates the university’s plan to raise the tuition fees of the regular programme for medical majors.

“For the foundation year, students must pay the fees of medicine, not dentistry, which is a higher fee. Even if the student plans to study dentistry, the fees are JD45 per credit hour, which indicates the universities’ intent to increase their fees,” Khatib, who is in his fourth year of study, told The Jordan Times.

Tuition fees for medicine students enrolled in the regular programme amount to JD45 per credit hour, while they are JD40 for the dentistry major in the regular programme. In the parallel programme, both majors are subject to a JD175 fee, while the fees amount to JD355 for the international programme, with a total of 256 credit hours for medicine and 195 credit hours for dentistry, according to the UJ’s website.

Khatib stated that the foundation year would “create a larger gap between private and public school students”. 

“This will also limit the chances for university applicants from governorates to get a quality education, since the foundation year will include familiar material to private school students or those who were enrolled in international programmes,” he claimed, stressing that Jordanian students are not allowed to retake the foundation year if they do not get accepted, whereas the international students can.

Abu Tarboush said that the decision was issued by the Ministry of Higher Education, explaining that the foundation year would introduce the courses to students and categorise them according to their grades and their desired major.

He stressed that the faculty will then be able to accept students “who are eligible to enter the medical fields without bias”.

On the issue of international programmes, Abu Tarboush said that applicants from international or private schools only constitute 5 per cent of the annual enrolled students at the university, ensuring that the programme and the professors will join efforts to prepare students for the medical majors.

He voiced hope that the decision would prepare students aiming to pursue medical fields at universities, while equipping them with the knowledge and background information necessary to guarantee high-quality education.

UJ’s Al Tajdeed (Renewal) Bloc member Tariq Deiri indicated that the decision was proposed back in 2013, with the inclusion of all medical faculties but was not implemented. In 2018, the decision was finalised to include two of the medical faculties.

Deiri said that students were informed of the decision on the unified admission system around three weeks ago and now fear “another hike in tuition fees for all medical faculties”.

The National Campaign for Students’ Rights, Thabahtoona, said in a statement that the decision would “diminish equality and justice due to the changes in the acceptance criteria”, as students from underprivileged areas across the Kingdom would get the same chances as those in the capital or other private schools.

The campaign added that the educational system would face a setback since students enrolled in private schools under international programmes would have a higher chance of getting accepted into the sought-after university major. 

For a medical student who spoke under condition of anonymity, the decision will discourage international students as they do not have a confirmed decision regarding their admission to a medical faculty.

She added: “They would rather stay in their country or even study abroad elsewhere than wasting a year without getting accepted into the major they prefer.”