The future of Caribbean diploma mills. (In my opinion)

[Japhethi]

Dispclaimer: This represents the opinion of the author only and should in no way be used as a reference or source to getting reliable information about caribbean schools. Author bears no responsibility for any other individual making decicions based upon this information. Anyone wanting to pursue a medical career is advised to consult with their premedical advisor or an educational counselor. Also, as always anyone wanting to undertake a new educational program is advised to counsel a physician to evaluate his/her emotional and physical maturity.



I think, with the AMA starting to wake up and also realising that more doctors is not the main htreat towards their salaries (lawyers are), there will be a "slaughter" among the caribbean profit-schools to come.
I think this will happen due to three reasons:

*a higher accepted/rejected ratio for applicants to US schools, as more schools and seats open up.

*The big ones will get bigger (and better) and their graduates will help them give a drag in that direction.

*More states will implement stricter standards upon licensure requirements than previously and close various loopholes that are curently bypassed.

I would be surprised if there is much more than 3-4 schools around in 4-5 years. I think these should be fine, but the others will gradually disappear.


Possible "survivors":

"THE BIG THREE"
St. Georges: Don't see this one going no matter what.
AUC: Huge and popular still and island is going independent
Ro$$: has a strong non-medical lobby, resourcefull and VERY rich AND willing to spend money no matter what.

All these have full approval in all states and it is unlikely this will change in the future. California as the "gold standard" of recognition among US states is also holding up very well. This would effectively keep these three going. Also, these schools having Stafford loans is a very strong recruitment base for people of all backgrounds, and parents don't have to mortgage their houses to be cosigners in order to save them. WHen people come up with a statement like; "Why bother going anywhere but the big three"?, they surely have a point. At least so far..


the Saba/MUA/Belize/Statia/St Martinus/St. James consortium:

Individually, all these schools are jokes compared to the big three, but together this could become a very strong conglomerate. All these are basically spawns from Saba, although I do not see neither the school on Saba or Statia (a joke of a place to locate a "medical community"), St. Martinus or St. James (too new to survive in the long run, might have been different in -79) being able to hold themselves in the future in my opinion. The best option would be if all the warlords running these schools and fighting the petty wars against each other found some common grounds in order to survive. The best option here would surely be to merge all these on one island St. Kitts&Nevis , where MUA is already located and make a solitary school there. In order to do this, they need to chase out all other schools from there and gain sole right to run a diploma mill there.


Hopelessly lost
Windsor "university"
anyone that has been there and seen the facilites can go from there to MUA, AUC or St. Georges and do the comparison themselves. School has been around since 1998 and still has to produce a single resident (to my knowledge) and definately not a licensed US physicians.

Spartan
-to many scandals and stories around, with everything from "one cadaver" to strip club at campus makes one wonder what is going on. I am sure it might still survive, but the more informed people get about options in the Caribbean, no one in their right senses would go there instead of going to AUC.

IUHS
-internet based and advanced standing to Nurses, Chiropractors, speech therapists, respiratory therapists and God knows what.
Say no more..

St Lukes, St. Matthews.
-Campus ine place, charter one place, clinicals one place and God knows what else is misplaced...!

St. Christopher.
_campus in England, clinicals in the US and where is it licensed? IS it in Liberia or Sierra *****?? I don't know, but I am pretty sure most of the students enrolled couldn't even locate the "charter Country" on a world map.

Kigezi
Where is this school? Isn't it "chartered in Uganda"?? Last time I heard about Uganda was in a college course on internasjonal politics and Idi Amin. He later died in Saudi-Arabia, and I don't think Kigezi has much time left either.

"Whatever the current school in Antigua is called:

I have yet to meet any graduate from this school. Maybe they only exist on paper, maybe they work only for the CIA or maybe they are so exclusive that only a 15th degree son of a Mason can get in there. In any case, I choose to keep it out of the picture.

All the others:

Only one thing to say:

DYING.....


Again, if my four survivor candidates will step up to the challenges of the 21st century and start educating doctors instead of holding a 20-month extended USLME prep course, they have a future. There are so many skilled educators here that COULD (if they wanted to) aquire an ethical consciousness and start implementing changes. Some of these changes should be:

*Offering of various research options to any student that wanted so.

*All clinicals whether US or not, should be in a teaching environment for that particular topic. In plain language: If you will do a surgery clerkship in the US, it should only be done in a hospital that has a green book affiliation in Surgery. If this is not possibel then clinicals should not be done there. It is a reason for hospitals being called "teaching hospitals".

*If the schools have a graduation ceremony it should be done in the country of the school and not at another location out of convenience.
If not, then don't HAVE a graduation ceremony at all.

*Schools should offer other graduate programs as well that is not only on paper, but fully functional. Also, the school should be an integral part of the community it is located and not an island within an island where most students think they own the entire place. (When in Rome, act like Romans).

*The USMLE exams should be taken outside of the US only. while this might sound like a trivial technicality, this would show SOME further effort in confirming the status as a foreign school. While doing clincials in the US is questionable if you want to call it a "foreign" school, at least limit it to the mere maximum needed. That most graduates intedn to practice there later on is another issue, but has nothing to do with being a foreign school.

[tRmedic21]

I don't know what makes you think you are an authority on offshore schools, or where you get your information, but in reading this post, I fond so many errors not only in facts, but also in logic that I am just going to laugh and move along, because it's not worth my time to address each inaccuracy.

Have a nice life.

[bts4202]

ditto

[Japhethi]

located where??


Chartered where??

Has clincials where??


I guess I am not THAT wrong am I???

[Japhethi]

Originally Posted by tRmedic21

I don't know what makes you think you are an authority on offshore schools, or where you get your information, but in reading this post, I fond so many errors not only in facts, but also in logic that I am just going to laugh and move along, because it's not worth my time to address each inaccuracy.

Have a nice life.

Could you point of some of the "errors in fact and logic" for me?


I understand that it is not worth your time, so I only ned ONE error to be pointed out.

[tiredintern]

Pretty much on the money. I know my carribean schools well and I am really interested in seeing where some of these smaller schools will go. A school like spartan can just keele over one day or could take off if they landed 1 or 2 good clinical sites. The sgu/ross "class size wars" are getting out of control as well. My class of 250 was the biggest one ever when I started and that number has gone up substantialy in just 5 years.

[charlottenian]

Originally Posted by Japhethi

St Lukes, St. Matthews.
-Campus ine place, charter one place, clinicals one place and God knows what else is misplaced...!

Seinfeld has nothing on you! Don't quit your day job

[sisjay]

Why didn't you mention UNIBE? Do you know much, have you heard anything about that school?

You mentioned plenty of other schools... I never hear much of anything about UNIBE...

[Japhethi]

UNIBE is not a diploma mill, but a decent school with many programs and its own national program as well.

UNIBE, UVI and Univ of Guyana are decent schools not to be compared with the ones I have mentioned.

[studentMD]

If Cali is the gold standard than UNIBE falls short.
Its not approved in cali.

see
http://www.valuemd.com/viewtopic.php?t=12616&start=15

and
http://www.valuemd.com/viewtopic.php?t=240&start=0