ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: One of the basic policy questions to be decided at the inception of medical education institutes is the language of instruction. AIMS: This study explored the perspectives of medical faculty and students at a college in Saudi Arabia on the language of instruction in medical education. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of undergraduate medical students and full-time faculty members at a medical college in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was conducted in 2016. Each participant completed a self-administered, validated 28-item questionnaire. RESULTS: The total number of students and faculty who responded were 468 (76%) and 37 (93%) respectively. Most students and faculty members agreed that studying in English enables a better access to medical information (n=457, 91%) and more job opportunities (n=419, 83%). Less than 15% of the students preferred to be taught in Arabic in most of the curriculum aspects except for communication skills (n=131, 28%) and the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) (n=119, 26%). CONCLUSIONS: Most medical students and faculty members preferred English as the language of instruction for medical education and did not believe that teaching medicine in Arabic should be sought as a future goal.
Subject(s)
Faculty, Medical/psychology , Language , Students, Medical/psychology , Teaching , Adult , Clinical Competence , Communication , Cross-Sectional Studies , Educational Measurement , Humans , Middle Aged , Saudi Arabia , Young AdultABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Medical education in Saudi Arabia is facing multiple challenges, including the rapid increase in the number of medical schools over a short period of time, the influx of foreign medical graduates to work in Saudi Arabia, the award of scholarships to hundreds of students to study medicine in various countries, and the absence of published national guidelines for minimal acceptable competencies of a medical graduate. DISCUSSION: We are arguing for the need for a Saudi national medical licensing examination that consists of two parts: Part I (Written) which tests the basic science and clinical knowledge and Part II (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) which tests the clinical skills and attitudes. We propose this examination to be mandated as a licensure requirement for practicing medicine in Saudi Arabia. CONCLUSION: The driving and hindering forces as well as the strengths and weaknesses of implementing the licensing examination are discussed in details in this debate.