NAMIBIA: Huge demand for medical training

Demand for places in the University of Namibia's two-year old School of Medicine and the recently introduced pharmacy degree far outstrips the number of places available, it has emerged. When the school opened, there were 500 mature student applicants for just two places.

Founding dean of the School of Medicine, Professor Peter Nyarango, told University World News that there was also very high demand from school-leavers, locally and from abroad, for admission into the MBChB and BPharm programmes.

"This has been our experience ever since these courses were introduced," he said.

The school accepts between 50 and 60 students for the MBChB and about 25 students to read pharmacy each year. Most are Namibians but about a third are from other Southern African countries that do not have medical schools.

It has also recently seen an increasing number of Namibian medical students abroad applying to transfer to the medical school back home. "So far we have been reluctant to take them because we do not have sufficient resources to satisfy local demand," Nyarango said.

When the school exhibited at a trade fair in northern Namibia earlier this month, its stand attracted great excitement. "Hundreds of application forms were snapped up within minutes, prompting officials to make more copies," Nyarango said.

Demand for access to the two courses through mature age entry has also been very high, he continued, with applicants falling over one another to secure the only four places - two in pharmacy and two in medicine - now available.

At the inception of the school there were more than 500 mature entry applications for two places, Nyarango said, and this year demand was also very high.

To be admitted into the pharmacy or medicine programmes on the basis of maturity, one needs to be at least 25 years old and have five years of relevant work experience. Nurses and pharmacy technicians normally comprise the bulk of mature age entry applicants, and applicants must sit an entrance test.

When the school opened, it admitted a 52-year-old through the mature age entry window. But the student withdrew after a year, citing family and personal reasons, sparking a raging debate over whether the school should have an upper age limit.

Nyarango said for the foreseeable future, the School of Medicine would draw its students from high schools, although that required investment of major resources to enable schools to raise the standard of education to enable would-be students to qualify for entry.