State of the Faculty Address 2021

15 Having made the diagnosis, what is the solution? Should we lower admission standards that would inevitably lead to higher failure rates? We have witnessed a disproportionate number of students who came in just above the admission threshold struggle through the first- and second-year summative examinations, as well as fall victim to maintaining mental and emotional wellness. Or perhaps we could lower the normative standards in our largely self-regulated curriculum, although that would be shirking our dual responsibility as a guarantor of quality doctors for the future. On another front, we could preferentially admit less qualified applicants on grounds of redressing intergenerational disadvantages, and then provide extra remedial help to get them through the curriculum. How would one operationalise this though – by using the JUPAS route as a proxy to mark out the unfairly disadvantaged? If so, would this be consistent with government policy dating from the first SAR Administration that proactively encouraged a diversity of school types, for instance by introducing the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) that has now accumulated 24 newly established and 35 government-aided/private independent schools which have switched over to the DSS. Most of these schools, in addition to the international schools, offer in whole or in part non-DSE programmes of study thus their students apply through the non-JUPAS route.

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mzg4NDg0