Nearly
100 students who were denied admittance to medical specialist programs at the
University of Health Sciences after failing oral exams were retroactively
accepted into the courses of their choice by Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday.
“In order
to remove all sins, today I sent you a gift that all 99 students who failed the
oral test, you can study in specialist doctor classes,” Mr. Hun Sen said.
Speaking
in front of thousands of current students at the inauguration ceremony of a new
university building, Mr. Hun Sen explained that his decision came after
learning of a university policy regarding so-called reserve candidates, which
he announced would be abolished by the beginning of next year’s application
process.
Reserve
candidates are students who are accepted to the University of Health Sciences’
medical specialist programs by default, regardless of their exam scores,
provided there are not enough regular applicants who pass their written and
oral exams.
“At the
moment, I discussed with the health minister and rector of the university that
from now on we will no longer have reserve candidates. We should select the
number of accepted students which is determined,” Mr. Hun Sen said.
The 99
students who failed their oral exams passed their written exams, Mr. Hun Sen
said, and would have been accepted to the university had it not been for a list
of 67 reserve candidates waiting to snatch most of their spots.
Mr. Hun
Sen became aware of reserve candidates after a student who failed his oral exam
posted on the premier’s Facebook page, demanding justice for his exam score.
The
student, Chay Makara, added that the scores of the 98 other denied students
were on par with the reserve candidates’ who were ultimately accepted to the
University of Health Sciences’ specialist programs.
“After I
got information that reserve candidates have been allowed to be accepted, we
were really disappointed. We also have the capacity, but we did not pass the
reserve candidates because of quality and quantity requirements,” Mr. Makara
said, adding that all the scores of reserve candidates should be investigated
before their approval.
In March,
Mr. Hun Sen implored the Ministry of Health to recruit more medical specialists
to fill a growing need in the Kingdom. He announced at that time that medical
specialists were in high demand by government hospitals, and that specialists
wishing to work at state-run hospitals would be made public servants by way of
an expedited process.
Yesterday
Mr. Hun Sen also announced that the examination fee for next year’s class of
University of Health Sciences students would be reduced from $150 to $25.
Ven
Rathavong
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