Studying abroad a bitter pill for Daniel

DANIEL SMYTH is still a little bit annoyed as he prepares to leave for Poland on a four-year stint at a medical school.

He is leaving work at University College Dublin’s medical faculty next week. He is not a member of the medical staff at UCD because he could not get into any of the country’s five medicine courses despite top grade Leaving Certificate results five years ago.

With 515 points, Daniel was 20 points short of getting into medical school, so he did a four-year science degree. He began working for UCD administration at the medical faculty earlier this year while he searched the internet for a college which would accept him as a postgraduate medical student.

His efforts paid off last month, when Jagiellonian University in Krakow accepted him on their four-year course.

“It’ll be interesting being in a different country but I feel aggrieved that I have to leave Ireland to get into the career I’ve always wanted,” said the 23-year-old from Ballisodare, Co Sligo.

He is lucky his parents, Gabrielle and Donal, a family doctor, are able to support him financially for his foreign studies, which will cost around €45,000 in college fees alone.

“It’s ironic that there are so many non-EU students in Irish medical schools but I have to go to Poland to become a doctor,” said Daniel.

The postgraduate entry system announced by Education Minister Noel Dempsey will remove the pressure on Leaving Certificate students competing for places in medicine courses.

However, opposition parties have expressed concern that the Government is using the changes to introduce fees by the back door, because free tuition only applies to primary degrees.

Campaign group Medical School Entry 2003 believes the Government-imposed limit of 305 Irish and EU students in medical schools here will continue to cause difficulties.

“This will just move the competition for places from school leavers to degree holders. We’re crying out for doctors but many young Irish people have to study medicine overseas while non-EU students pay huge fees to our medical schools,” said group founder, Dr Róisín Healy.

However, the medical schools have little choice but to attract non-national students because they boost the colleges’ revenues.

The Institute of Guidance Counsellors president Brian Mooney last night called on the colleges concerned to desist from retaining such a large number of places for non-EU students and put the futures of EU students before financial considerations.

But any changes to the system will be too late for Daniel Smyth, who will graduate from Krakow in 2007, when the first students will enter the post-graduate medical courses.