BY COREY CONNELLY
A new policy is being devised to address alleged discrimination in the enrolment practices at UWI’s Faculty of Medical Sciences, Mt Hope, says Tertiary Education Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid.
The policy, which is expected to take effect by January, comes in the wake of claims of discriminatory practices in the entry level criteria of the institution.
Abdul-Hamid said he had several conversations with administrators of the university advising them that the situation that existed in Trinidad was inconsistent with the recommendations of the accredited body.
“Since then, on a number of occasions, we have had a number of meetings, and so, as a result of the intervention, I suspect of the vice chancellor, that resistance which was taking place within the faculty was able to be defeated,” he said in an interview on Friday.
The minister’s stance came as university lecturer Dr Courtenay Bartholomew also complained about the faculty’s discriminatory enrolment policies.
In an article published yesterday, Bartholomew said the medical rot in T&T began with the selection of students and teaching staff at the Faculty of Medical Sciences.
Bartholomew criticised those who, he claimed, had presented false resumes, adding he had “long brought” the issue to the attention of deans and others in authority.
Abdul-Hamid said yesterday on a radio programme that, based on information he had received, Indo-Trinidadian students had an advantage when applying for entry at the faculty. He stressed, however, this practice would not be tolerated at any of the country’s higher learning institutions.
“My understanding of this is that on the basis of A-level performance, large numbers of students of East Indian descent were, in fact, gaining entry into the Faculty of Medical Sciences,” he said.
“This is my understanding…I do not have empirical evidence. It is on the basis of information that has come to me as line minister.
Abdul-Hamid said the issue of race was raised because there were some lecturers in the faculty who held the view that to adjust the admissions criteria would be discriminatory against Indians.
The minister regarded this view as “ridiculous,” saying emphasis should be placed on pursuing an admissions criteria that were consistent with international best practice “without consideration of what might be the implications on the basis of any other variable.”
Gopeesingh: Ethnicity not a factor
United National Congress senator Dr Tim Gopeesingh, a former clinical vice dean at the faculty, insisted ethnicity was not a factor in student admissions.
“The admission team comprises members of the medical faculty, the dean, together with somebody from the University of the West Indies in St Augustine, somebody from the campus in Barbados, (and) someone from the campus in Jamaica,” he said.
“There is no way that a dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Jamaica or who heads the medical school in Barbados—and now we have a branch in Bahamas—no way they will encourage or inculcate any form of divisive or ethnic polarisation in terms of admission into the medical school.
“So, I want to state categorically that there is no way that the Faculty of Medical Sciences deals with anything about ethnicity in terms of admission requirements…It goes purely by meritocracy.”