Medical schools must not discriminate against entrance exam takers based on such factors as gender or when they graduated from high school, an academic association said Friday when announcing standards it developed following the revelation that Tokyo Medical University had manipulated the scores of certain examinees.
The Association of Japanese Medical Colleges (AJMC) said the standards will be applied to entrance exams to be administered from next spring, and members that do not comply will be subject to penalties, including being expelled from the association.
The standards stipulated that medical schools must decide which test-takers have been successful based on two perspectives:
-- Whether the selection will appear fair in the eyes of the general public.
-- Whether it will help secure human resources who can become competent medical professionals.
Therefore, the standards stipulated, it is inappropriate for medical colleges to treat examinees unfairly across the board based on gender, age or how many years ago they graduated from high school. "This approach will never be tolerated," the standards said.
However, the standards do include exceptions. For example, some medical schools set regional quotas with the aim of securing doctors for less-populated areas. This kind of special quota requires applicants to contribute to the local communities where their medical schools are located over a certain period of time after graduation.
As local governments often prefer younger doctors to work in their areas, the AJMC standards allow member schools to consider age when choosing successful examinees from among those who have applied within such regional quotas, as long as they mention this criteria in their application guidelines.
Some medical schools also set a special quota for the children of alumni, as well as for graduates from their affiliated high schools. These quotas are also permissible under the AJMC standards, as long as medical colleges make public such details as the purpose for setting such quotas and the number of seats available within them.
The new standards will also be used to judge the fairness of past entrance exams, the AJMC said.
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