Unified Doctorate Exam crisis sparks student protests at Faculty of Medicine

A number of students from the Faculty of Human Medicine held a protest in front of the Ministry of Higher Education two days ago, expressing their rejection of the current format of the unified doctoral exam. They demanded that the exam be either cancelled or made optional, arguing that the current structure imposes an unreasonable burden on students, especially as it consists of seven intensive tests over two weeks covering the entire medical curriculum.

During the protest, two deputy ministers from the transitional government met with student representatives and listened to their demands. They affirmed that "the ministry’s doors are always open to any legitimate demand," signaling a willingness to engage with student concerns.

Meanwhile, the Director of the Ministry’s Media Office, Ahmad Al-Ashqar, confirmed on his personal page that the ministry held an official session with representatives of the medical students.

Sources from ANHA agency within the university claimed that the protest may have been encouraged by the ministry itself, as part of efforts to address the challenges of merging universities and resolving the issue of medical students studying in universities in Idlib and areas controlled by Turkey and its affiliated factions in northern Syria. These claims are based on the nature of the ministry’s response to the protest and the attention it received.

The Ministry of Higher Education in the transitional government showed notable interest in the protest several deputy ministers met with the protesting students, and the ministry’s media office was quick to publish news of the event.

In contrast, when students from the Faculty of Law protested the recent shift from multiple-choice to written exams, their demands received virtually no response or engagement.

Sources suggest that if these students were to take the official unified exam conducted by the Ministry of Higher Education, only a few would pass due to the significant educational disparities between universities.

Medical professionals and experts have warned against this policy shift and against granting medical degrees to students from public or private universities who may have succeeded through questionable means. They emphasized that medicine is unlike any other profession—it requires precision and deals directly with human health.

Students told ANHA agency that the absence of a unified, accredited curriculum makes exam preparation vulnerable to the subjective preferences of certain faculty members. They also criticized the use of oral interviews, describing some questions as lacking objectivity and fairness.

On the other hand, some newly graduated doctors opposed the demand to cancel the unified exam, arguing that eliminating such exams would devalue the Syrian medical degree and harm its global reputation. They pointed out that unified national exams are a standard practice in many countries to ensure the competency of graduates.

Others saw the demands as symptomatic of a deeper crisis—pointing to the absence of academic planning and the lack of experience among the administrators of the transitional government in Syria.

Doctors noted that in the UAE, Syrian physicians are allowed to take the medical licensing exam only three times after which, if they fail, they are no longer eligible to practice. Similarly, in Germany, a qualifying exam is required before beginning medical practice. They questioned why students who paid large sums to obtain their degrees should be given the same recognition as students who studied 20 hours a day, bought shifts in hospitals during their residencies to gain experience—while others sold those shifts for 100,000 Syrian pounds each and sought a degree at any cost