Set to separate applicants based on disabilities

Executives at Medicine faculties all over the country want future applicants to fill in a form regarding personal health when applying for Medicine. In the proposed personal health statement, applicants are asked to inform whether they have severe visual or hearing impairments that cannot be improved by means of any aid, or whether they have illnesses or injuries that prevent complete movement and coordination of arms and hands.

Last week, a national convention of representatives from Medicine faculties, comprising faculty deans, sent the proposal to the Ministry of Education and Research. According to the letter to the Ministry, the faculties will invite the unfortunate applicants to a meeting where it will be discussed how or whether they will be able to finish the course at all. The personal health statement also informs as follows: «for certain types of disabilities, finishing the course may prove difficult or impossible».

– Discriminating

Law Professor Aslak Syse has since 2002 fronted a committee appointed to strengthen the legal protection against discrimination of the disabled. Syse holds a degree in Medicine himself and has upon request from Universitas looked through the letter from the faculty deans to the Ministry. He is convinced that the grounds for this personal health statement and the draft itself are utterly discriminatory.

– It seems as if its current form and background seek to remind students of their own unfortunate situation.

But Syse thinks that if there is something disabled applicants with ample diplomas know for sure, it is the fact that they have achieved good marks in spite of lacking the necessary academic adjustments.

– They are equally aware of the challenges ahead, Syse thinks.

– In my opinion, perspectives need to be altered completely if these statements are to be mandatory without being discriminatory.

He feels that it should be made clear that the faculties themselves need this knowledge in order to make academic adjustments to comply with all students.

– But is it unfair to require certain abilities of Medicine students?

– Not all Medicine students will become general practitioners. In my days as a student of Medicine here in Oslo, we had, for instance, highly-qualified teachers with considerable coordination problems for arms and legs, Syse explains.

Denies discrimination

Per A. Brodal is Faculty Dean at the Faculty of Medicine at UiO and took part in the wording of the letter to the Ministry. He denies that the personal health statement is an attempt to force the disabled out of Medicine:

– It is only a matter of having a meeting in which advice and assessment of the likelihood of success are provided. We have no legal authority to exclude anyone from taking up Medicine as long as they otherwise meet the requirements. We have no intention of preventing disabled students from studying Medicine.

Nevertheless, Brodal holds that «some disabilities are incompatible with the training and practice of doctors». He believes that students who inform that they have severe visual or hearing impairments, let alone physical disabilities to arms and hands, are unfit to be doctors.

State Secretary for the Ministry of Education and Research, Åge Rosnes (representing the Norwegian socialist party SV), informs Universitas that the Ministry has as of yet not been able to view all the details of the matter. He therefore does not wish to make a comment at this point.