In a new effort to increase enrollment in medical courses in the African continent Grenada based St. Georges University (SGU) has stepped up recruitment efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa. This week, the university staff has been in Nairobi engaging academic advisors from various regional universities with an aim of informing them on the institutions activities with an aim of attracting more students to the SGU School of Medicine.
Speaking during a one day workshop in Nairobi Bradley Wade, regional director for Africa at SGU lamented the world and especially the less developed countries continue to grasp with a shortage in medical personnel especially doctors. He attributed the lack of access to tertiary institutions as a major hindrance to pursuit of medical field even for qualified students.
“Being an institution that is specifically focused on training in medical courses we offer unrestricted access to qualified students wishing to pursue medicine. Our learners are specifically privileged to also have unrestricted access to residency in hospitals in the US and UK, markets that remains elusive to many qualified professionals from other parts of the world.”
According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO) Kenya currently has 19 doctors per 100,000 people, while the continent average is 10 doctors per 100,000 people far below the recommended ratio of 100 doctors per 100,000 people.
SGU School of Medicine currently hosts between 50 and 60 African students pursuing medicine annually with just under a dozen students from Kenya. Wade says while the costs of medical courses also remains a major hindrance for disadvantaged students especially from developing countries measures such as partial scholarship by SGU have helped alleviate the situation. The University is also working with African governments and non-governmental institutions to provide finance to their citizens.
“We are working with partners to ensure that students from disadvantaged backgrounds are not locked out of our world class facilities. With a 95 percent US residency placement rate for graduates over the past five years it is no wonder we continue to enjoy continued enlisting by students from over 140 countries worldwide,” adds Wade.
David Anthonisz, Executive Director for International Student Recruitment at St. Georges University, says it is also pursuing partnership with local universities in the continent similar partnerships with Universities in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Netherlands and Ireland.
The university which has been in existence for over 50 years and a decade in Africa enrolls about 3200 students annually in the School of Medicine with a total of over 22,000 students having completed the Doctor of Medicine program by the end of 2023. SGU also boasts of being the largest provider of doctors into 1st year US residences for the last 10 years combined.
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