Question NW747 to the Minister of Higher Education and Training

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05 April 2016 - NW747

Profile picture: Singh, Mr N

Singh, Mr N to ask the Minister of Higher Education and Training

With regard to the institutions of medical and dental tertiary education, (a) how many (i) medical students enrolled to study medicine in South Africa in the past three years. (ii) would-be medical students do not find places at our tertiary institutions each year and (iii) medical students leave to pursue medical and dental studies overseas because of shortage of teaching capacity at local universities and (b) what (i) are the current demographic details in respect of students studying medicine at our universities and (ii) criteria were used to determine the specified demographic classification?

Reply:

(a)(i) and (b)(i) Information on the number and demographic details of medical students enrolled to study medicine at public higher education institutions are tabulated below:

Table 1: Number of Bachelor of Medicine (MBChB) students enrolled in public higher education institutions, by race and gender, from 2011 to 2014.

Race

Gender

Year

   

2012

2013

2014

African

Female

Male

2 435

1 795

2 588

1 800

2 789

1 815

Coloured

Female

Male

597

304

636

325

679

341

Indian

Female

Male

644

449

643

476

665

528

White

Female

Male

1 765

1 084

1 800

1 118

1 838

1 113

Unknown

Female

Male

13

13

19

21

21

29

Table 2: Number of Bachelor in Dental Surgery (BChD) students enrolled in public higher education institutions, by race and gender, from 2012 to 2014.

Race

Gender

Year

   

2012

2013

2014

African

Female

Male

97

61

95

56

113

61

Coloured

Female

Male

70

41

78

40

76

44

Indian

Female

Male

114

62

109

54

107

46

White

Female

Male

159

95

159

95

177

89

Unknown

Female

Male

2

2

3

1

3

1

         

(ii) Currently this information is not available on a national level and will only be available once the Central Application Service (CAS) is fully implemented and operational. The CAS will enable the Department to track the number of applications and admissions for specific programmes at all institutions across the country.

(iii) The Department does not collect statistics on students who applied and were accepted to institutions of higher learning outside the country. Students are not obligated to inform the Department if they intend to study outside the country. However, information is available with respect to the enrolment of South African students in Cuba as part of the Republic of South Africa (RSA) Cuba programme managed by the national Department of Health. These statistics are shown in the table below:

Table 3: National Enrolment Statistics of the RSA-Cuba Medical Programme as at

March 2016 provided by the National Department of Health.

 

Province

Prep

2015

1st

2014

2nd

2013

3rd

2012

4th

2011

5th

2010

Total in Cuba

Eastern Cape

9

90

101

90

10

5

305

Free State

2

11

33

153

0

0

199

Gauteng

112

136

112

94

8

0

462

KwaZulu-Natal

22

93

292

336

10

13

766

Limpopo

110

110

106

40

11

18

395

Mpumalanga

99

10

14

80

11

13

227

Northern Cape

30

28

47

27

11

7

150

North West

35

126

171

90

12

15

449

Total

419

604

876

910

73

71

2 953

(b) (ii) The information provided in Tables 1 and 2 are audited data extracted from the Higher Education Information Management System (HEMIS) and it is assumed that the standard South African demographic definitions have been utilised.

 

 

Compiler/Contact Persons:

Ext:

DIRECTOR – GENERAL

STATUS:

DATE:

REPLY TO QUESTION 747 APPROVED/NOT APPROVED/AMENDED

Dr BE NZIMANDE, MP

MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING

STATUS:

DATE:

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