A new era begins in Bangladesh's medical education

Bangladesh has finally implemented a significant policy change in its medical admission system, prioritising merit over financial means.

Like the existing admission system in public medical colleges, the government has introduced an automated system for private medical colleges, and fixed the admission fee at Tk19,44,000.

Under the new digitised system, admission to private medical colleges will be determined based on aspirants' merit and college preference, which is a crucial step towards a more inclusive and merit-driven medical education system.

This policy shift also aims to address the issue of exorbitant admission fees charged by private medical colleges, which has burdened guardians and deprived poor but meritorious students.

Professor Dr Titu Miah, director general of the Directorate General of Medical Education, told TBS, "We are working to ensure that private medical colleges will admit students on merit. It is not fair if an aspirant whose serial number is 7,000 [based on test score] is unable to get admission to a private medical school while someone with a serial number of 70,000 gets admitted only because of money.

"We hope that if this new policy is implemented, irregularities in private medical education will be reduced."

In the most recent MBBS admission test held on 10 March, over 135,000 students took part to secure entry into government and private medical colleges in Bangladesh.

Only a handful of the aspirants who secure higher test scores get the chance to be admitted to public colleges.

Of all the aspirants, approximately 49,000 students achieved the minimum eligibility score of 40. Previously, students with the lowest score could secure admission to prestigious private medical colleges by paying exorbitant fees ranging from Tk20 lakh to Tk50 lakh. However, students with higher scores, who could not get a chance in public colleges, often missed out on opportunities due to financial constraints.

The new policy aims to rectify this imbalance by placing greater emphasis on merit and academic performance during the admissions process.

'Automation to stop admission irregularities'

The Directorate General of Medical Education (DGME) has fixed private medical colleges for this year's aspiring students according to merit list and preference.

As per a circular issued by the DGME on 22 June, students, who passed the recent MBBS admission test, will be able to get admitted to their designated private medical colleges from 3 July to 9 July.

According to DGME data, there are 66 approved private medical colleges in the country that have 6,208 seats. Out of this, 3,332 seats are for domestic students and 2,551 for foreigners. 

Against the domestic seats, 6,354 aspirants submitted applications online and the DGME has sent SMS to 3,332 candidates according to their merit and preference.

The names of the medical colleges and roll numbers of students have been published on the DGME website. 

The publication shows students with test scores of 62-71 got the opportunity for admission into several institutions including Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College Hospital, Ibrahim Medical College, Bangladesh Medical College, and Dhaka National Medical College. 

This time, the number of students, who received 40-45 marks, getting a chance in private medical colleges is very low.

Experts laud new policy

Prof Dr Kazi Jahangir Hossain, principal of Shaheed Monsur Ali Medical College Hospital, told The Business Standard, "It will be an amazing achievement if the automated admission process can be fully implemented. Studying medical science requires two things – talent and money. Till now, if you had talent, but no money, you could study in government medical colleges, but not in private ones. It is about to change now."

Professor Liaquat Ali, an educationist and the former vice chancellor of Bangladesh University of Health Sciences, also lauded the initiative. 

"We have to have a standard in the education system. Because if there is no minimum standard, the doctors, who will be trained at the colleges, will not be able to treat people well. By allowing private medical colleges to admit poor students, the standard of medical education has eroded," he said.

"This policy must be implemented even though seats remain vacant in non-standard medical colleges. There will be no shortage of students in good colleges. Those who opened medical colleges for business purposes like opening Chinese restaurants now have to improve the quality of education or else they will be thrown out," Professor Liaquat Ali said.

"Most of the private hospital owners are influential people and the Ministry of Health should not compromise with them in implementing the policy," the professor added.

Experts also called fixing the rate a good initiative because if the fee is not fixed, each college will charge a different amount. 

Previously, some medical colleges charged Tk16 lakh and some charged Tk40-45 or more. Besides, there were many unseen transactions that had to be made for securing admission.

A student in the final year of a private medical college in the capital, who did not wish to be named, told TBS, "Earlier, apart from the test score, a donation had to be made to get admission in a private medical college. Otherwise, medical colleges would say that there is no vacancy."

'Efforts to obstruct new policy thwarted'

On 15 June, some 12 aspiring students filed a petition with the high court seeking a cancellation of the automation policy for admissions into private colleges. 

The High Court directed the DGME to dispose of the writ within seven days. On 25 June, the DGME dismissed the writ.

DGME sources said, according to the rules, admission to private medical colleges is supposed to happen based on merit, but the colleges charged one and a half to two times more than the admission fee set by the government.

In order to prevent such irregularities, an initiative was taken last year to make MBBS admission in medical colleges on the basis of merit and preference in the academic year 2021-2022. But it was postponed at the request of the private medical college authorities.

The members of the Bangladesh Private Medical College Association have been opposing this automation process for a long time. 

When asked if the private college owners have accepted the matter, Dr Titu Miah, the director general of the DGME, said, "The owners of private medical colleges were in the committee that made the decision on automation. The automated admission process was supposed to have started last year but the owners took a year. Now we are implementing it on the directives of the health minister."