Most of the medical students’ demands have been met, said Higher Education Minister Abdellatif Miraoui in Rabat on Monday, in response to a key question during the oral question session in the House of Representatives on the subject of “the training of students in medicine, dentistry and pharmacy.”
The Ministries of Higher Education and Health have responded favorably to 45 of the 50 demands put forward by the coordination of medical school students, while dialogue is still ongoing with regard to the remaining five points.
He added that, at the invitation of the Ministry of Higher Education, several meetings had been held with representatives of students, teacher-researchers, deans, and university presidents.
These meetings are part of the process of consolidating communication about the ongoing situation of the faculties of medicine, pharmacy and dentistry, he noted, adding that the issue of the third cycle is one of the points still under discussion with the hopes of reaching common ground with all stakeholders.
Miraoui affirmed that his department had worked to improve training in these fields by revising the national teaching standards specific to these courses, including reducing the number of years of training from seven to six for medical doctors.
This reform will strengthen national medical resources and skills, noting that several countries limit the number of years of training to six–including Germany, Italy, Spain and Ireland–while the United States sets training years at four, plus an additional four years for specialization.
According to the Minister, seven years of training has been adopted by France and a number of other French-speaking countries.
Regarding the teaching staffing ratio, Miraoui noted that the situation today has dropped from 16 to 13 students per professor for the faculties of medicine and dentistry, adding that the universities have benefited from a budget to set up simulative “Telemedicine” centers, to enable students to access the new digital training courses.