Free tuition for medical students: Hardly feasible!

Proposals to exempt tuition fees and provide living expenses for medical students should be considered from a budget perspective and be fair to other professions.

The Ministry of Health has just proposed that the Government consider supporting 100% of tuition fees and providing living expenses for medical students as with pedagogical students; the level of tuition support is equal to the level charged by the training institution.

The support cost is too large.

According to regulations, tuition fees for medicine and pharmacy are currently the highest among university training majors. Specifically, for schools that have not covered their own regular expenses, the tuition fee for medicine and pharmacy in the 2024-2025 school year is 27.6 million VND; for other majors in the health sector, it is 20.9 million VND. At autonomous public schools, tuition fees are many times higher, for example, at Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, tuition fees for medicine and dentistry are more than 88 million VND/year.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Kim Hong, former Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, said that the Ministry of Health's proposal to exempt tuition fees and provide living expenses for medical students is "reasonable" but in the current context, it is not feasible because the budget is too large. In addition, it is necessary to raise the issue of whether this policy applies to private school students, because all graduates contribute to the medical industry. "Perhaps, there should be a better policy for poor but good students studying medicine rather than exempting tuition fees for everyone," Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Kim Hong suggested.

Medical students during a practice session at Nguyen Tat Thanh University (HCMC). Photo: TAN THANH

From a different perspective, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Xuan Hoan, Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade, said that each field and profession has its own mission, so the proposal to exempt tuition fees and provide living expenses for medical students raises questions about fairness compared to other fields of study. "Information technology, agriculture, environment, materials technology... are also very important for the development of the country. If every industry proposes support policies like the education industry, the budget will not be able to handle it" - Mr. Hoan stated his opinion.

The principal of a medical school in the North believes that the proposal to exempt tuition fees for medical students is very humane but not practical. According to this principal, when the investment budget for education is still limited, if socialization and mobilization of social resources are not done, it will create great pressure on the budget. Therefore, instead of exempting tuition fees, there should be policies on scholarships, loans... for students in difficult circumstances.

Good treatment is more important

Speaking to a reporter from the Lao Dong Newspaper, Dr. Ha Anh Duc, Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management - Ministry of Health, said that according to the provisions of the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (amended), the state will support all tuition fees and living expenses for the entire course for students majoring in psychiatry, pathology, forensic medicine, forensic psychiatry, infectious diseases and emergency resuscitation at training facilities in the state health sector. In addition, it will support tuition fees and living expenses for the entire course according to regulations for students at training facilities in the private health sector.

According to Mr. Duc, training human resources in the medical sector should not focus on quantity but on quality. Citing the reality in a locality with up to 5 medical and pharmaceutical training facilities, Mr. Duc pointed out the situation of low input and uncontrolled output, leading to many concerns related to the quality of human resources in the medical sector.

At the 2024 annual conference of the Central Region Hospital Directors Club recently held in Hue City (Thua Thien - Hue Province), Dr. Nguyen Trong Khoa, Deputy Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management, said that when inspecting the prevention of non-communicable diseases, there were provinces with only one psychiatrist. To partly reduce the shortage of medical human resources, the government has a policy of supporting tuition and living expenses for some sectors that do not attract enough human resources.

An education expert pointed out that the medical industry is lacking human resources because the treatment policy is too low. To have good human resources, there must be good treatment policies and appropriate salaries. "Medical students study very hard for 6 years, but when they graduate, their salary is often not equal to that of bachelors in other majors who only study for 4 years. Not to mention, doctors who want to work must spend more time and money to practice and get a practice certificate. Low salaries in the public hospital sector along with work pressure have caused a loss of human resources, not the burden of tuition fees" - this expert analyzed.

According to an expert in the medical field, very few medical students are from "poor families" and most of them have enough financial resources to pay for 7-10 years of study and practice. Therefore, if there is a support policy, it should be for grassroots medical staff who have received postgraduate training, and at the same time, there should be a commitment to work at a local medical facility for a certain period of time after completing training, for example 5 years.

Does not affect school autonomy

Prof. Dr. Le Minh Tri, Vice Rector of the University of Health Sciences - VNU-HCM, assessed that the Ministry of Health's proposal to the Government to study 100% tuition and living expenses support for medical students shows that the State is focusing on investment and creating conditions for the development of the country's healthcare. However, most public universities are financially autonomous, so if tuition fees are exempted or reduced for students, the school will not have enough budget to pay salaries for lecturers, leading to the school having difficulty retaining talented and good lecturers.

"The school's policy is not to compete for quantity, but to give absolute priority to student quality. The school can only exempt tuition fees for students when the government has a policy of granting scholarships and refunding the tuition fees to the school, so that there is no financial deficit and autonomy is ensured" - Professor Le Minh Tri proposed.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/mien-hoc-phi-cho-sinh-vien-nganh-y-kho-kha-thi-196241227213318954.htm