Pakistan offers places to 100 medical students from Gaza

Medical and dentistry students from the war-torn Palestinian territory of Gaza will be given priority admission at medical and dental colleges and universities in Pakistan in a humanitarian gesture, according to an announcement by the federal regulator overseeing medical education and the medical profession in Pakistan.

“Medical students from Gaza will be able to take admissions at Pakistani medical colleges to complete their education and training,” said the 3 July official statement from the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).

Most medical education institutions in Gaza have been destroyed in the war and there is no system left to ensure that Gaza medical students can complete their education, it said.

Destroyed infrastructure

Pakistan’s decision comes amid the intensifying war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel which has seen the destruction of most of the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip. The war has also damaged educational infrastructure including medical colleges and universities. Two medical schools located in the Gaza Strip – Islamic University of Gaza and Al-Azhar University – have both been destroyed by Israeli attacks.

Pakistan plans to allow 100 medical students from Gaza to be admitted to its medical colleges where they will be included in clinical rotations and gain experience by doing house jobs (junior doctor roles) at teaching hospitals in the public sector.

“Exposure to various medical specialties during their education in Pakistan will allow students to pursue specific areas of interest,” the statement said. “They will gain back specialised skills in fields such as cardiology, orthopaedics, oncology, paediatrics or surgery, addressing critical needs in Gaza’s healthcare system.”

The scheme will be implemented in four phases with 25 Gaza students admitted in each of the phased arrivals. The PMDC decision did not provide details about how the financial expenses of the students will be met.

Dr Rizwan Taj, PMDC president, told University World News: “Administrative matters will be settled very soon including tuition fee waivers and accommodation needs for Gaza medical students who would opt to continue their studies in Pakistan.”

Special committee

Regulatory and administrative matters related to the clinical placements of the foreign students will fall under a special committee headed by the PMDC which includes representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination.

The committee will ensure speedy completion of procedures for the induction of Gazan students into the country’s medical education system, the PMDC said.

Taj said Gaza needs more doctors during the current conflict and beyond.

“Gaza needs health infrastructure that has been completely destroyed in the ongoing war. We hope when Gaza students will return from Pakistan to their land, they will be able to contribute to the healthcare system there. This is a humanitarian move and this would be our contribution, though small, to help the Gazans,” he noted.

Taj said students from Gaza will benefit from Pakistan’s well-equipped medical colleges and trained professors. They will gain valuable experience in various medical specialities through the country’s well-recognised curricula and mentored training at teaching hospitals in major cities.

“This will also be beneficial for us as we will have a diversity of cultures at our medical colleges. This will promote intercultural harmony and goodwill between the two nations,” Taj said.

He confirmed that the decision to accept the students was made after a suggestion by Dr Mohammad Faisal, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, who himself earned a medical degree before continuing higher education in political science.

Pakistan Foreign Secretary Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi told University World News the decision to allow Gaza medical students to continue their education in Pakistan was a diplomatic gesture made on humanitarian grounds.

“This is not part of any academic exchange programme. This is part of aid to the distressed Gazans so that their medical students are well trained to serve back in their own land where there is a medical emergency.”

Repatriation of Pakistani students

The offer to accommodate Gazan students comes against the backdrop of the repatriation in May this year of nearly 4,000 Pakistani students, many of them pursuing medical studies, from Kyrgyzstan in the wake of attacks on foreign students by violent mobs in the country’s capital city Bishkek.

Some 2,500 Pakistani students, most of them medical students, were also evacuated from Ukraine in March 2022 after the Russian attack on that country.

At the time of these two incidents, there were calls to absorb the returning students into Pakistan’s local medical colleges and universities, but the requests from students and their families were refused.

“The majority of the students who fled Kyrgyzstan have returned, and those who were brought back from Ukraine have either returned or have secured admissions at medical colleges of other countries suiting their career aspirations and financial positions,” Qazi said.

Four universities in Gaza’s neighbouring countries of Jordan and Egypt have also opened their doors to medical students from Gaza.