Not enough facilities to train medical students

Not enough facilities to train medical studentsHage Geingob campus can only admit 80 students per year to study medicine The University of Namibia’s Hage Geingob medical campus in Windhoek receives over 2000 applications per year. Medeline /Gases

The Unam School of Medicine can only accommodate 80 students per year. Johannes Haufiku, acting director of communications and marketing, said the annual intake of new students is a decision not made by the school but by the health professions council.

“Health is a sensitive part of the government and it is very important that the students get quality learning and training at the school,” Haufiku says.

He says admitting 80 students per year, including repeaters, is based on the number of facilitators available and resources at the university. He adds that the university needs to take into account the laboratory space and the student-to-teacher ratio.

The School of Medicine's graduates are trained in accredited hospitals in the country, including state and private facilities. The amount of space in hospitals for trainees is another contributing factor why the institution can admit only 80 students per year.

If the School of Medicine receives about 2 000 applicants, it can take in fewer than 10% of them and it selects the best students per region.

Admitting the elite

There was a Twitter account created where the account holder claimed that the School of Medicine’s admission process was corrupt. The account holder claimed that the School of Medicine only accepts students with “prominent” surnames. My Zone approached Haufiku for comment and he said this allegation was a blatant fabrication.

One of the tweets alleged that a student with a well-known surname was admitted despite only having 32 points in five subjects while the minimum requirement is 35 in five subjects.

“If the person behind this account has evidence of these allegations, I urge them to take it to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC),” Haufiku responded.

Caption 1: The University of Namibia’s Hage Geingob medical campus in Windhoek.

Photo credit: Contributed