THE qualifications of medical students who enrol at the University of Newcastle after January, 2020, will no longer be recognised in Singapore after the country reviewed its list of accepted international medical schools.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The University of Newcastle (UoN) is one of three Australian universities to be taken off the list of recognised medical qualification providers in Singapore.
But the decision should not be seen as a reflection of the quality of the Hunter's "trailblazing" medical program, Professor Brian Kelly, the head of UoN's School of Medicine and Public Health, said.
"They have reduced the number of recognised universities from about 160 to about 100, so we are sitting alongside a number of other international universities," Professor Kelly said.
"They have been through a process of expansion over the years, and are now looking at contraction as they build their own capacity to graduate local medical graduates within Singapore."
The Singapore Ministry of Health website says the review took international and national university rankings into consideration, as well as performance of "conditionally registered" doctors from the universities. It was to "ensure that the quality of overseas-trained doctors practicing in Singapore locally remains high".
Students from Singapore currently make up about a third of "commencing" international medical enrolments at the University of Newcastle, with 79 students in 2019.
Professor Kelly said while Singapore's decision to remove UoN from the list was "disappointing", it was "respected".
"Students from all over the globe come to study in Australia, so I think we can be confident that there will still be a demand for what we have to offer," he said.
"Our medical program is currently ranked ninth in Australia, out of 19 programs, and within the top 150 in the world," he said. "I am very proud of our degree. I don't see this decision as a reflection on the quality of the degree.
"This is part of what happens with the changing international environment around the needs of different sites and locations for medical education."
Students currently enrolled in the medical program, and those who had already graduated, would not be affected by the change.
"We have had recognition from the Singapore Medical Council for our medical program since about 2003," Professor Kelly said.
Medicine is not taught at the UoN's Singapore campus.
