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Diari de Catalunya

Catalan doctors and universities push for fairer access to Medicine degrees

40% of public university students come from other regions, leading to a professional deficit in Catalonia after graduation.

Generic image of university evaluation documents or entrance exams, symbolizing the disparity in grades.
IA

Generic image of university evaluation documents or entrance exams, symbolizing the disparity in grades.

The Consell de Col·legis de Metges de Catalunya and university deans are urging the Catalan Government to change the Medicine admission system to address territorial inequality penalizing local students.

Concerns arise as 40% of students in public Medicine faculties in Catalonia (24-25 academic year) originate from other autonomous communities. This figure reaches 70% at the Universitat de Lleida and 65% at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona. The Consell de Col·legis de Metges de Catalunya (CCMC) warns that most of these graduates return to practice in their home regions, worsening the shortage of doctors in Catalonia.
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"The current admission system for Medicine is undoubtedly improvable, in terms of timing and form."

Toni Trilla · Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the UB
The current single university district system across Spain is criticized because high school curricula and university entrance exams (Selectivitat) differ significantly between autonomous communities. Data from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities shows that Catalan students obtain a much lower proportion of excellent grades (7.1% in 2024) compared to regions like Murcia (20%) or Andalusia (15.6%), disadvantaging them in high cut-off degrees.
To remedy this imbalance, the CCMC proposes a system based on classifying students by percentiles within their respective autonomous community before comparing them nationally. This method, developed by Mathematics doctors Xavier Fernández-Real and Xavier Ros-Oton, aims to eliminate the bias caused by varying exam difficulties.
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"It does not destroy the single district system and, instead, incorporates an element of valuation."

Olga Pané · Minister of Health
The proposal has been welcomed by Health Minister Olga Pané and several faculty deans, including Anna Casanovas (UdL) and Albert Selva (UAB), who view it as a fair alternative. The Ministry of Research and Universities is currently studying the feasibility of the percentile system, which, if adopted, would need to be submitted to the central Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for nationwide debate.

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