The new reform on access to the Faculty of Medicine will allow students to enroll directly in the first semester of studies without having to face the dreaded admission test. However, to access the second semester, it will be necessary to pass certain exams in the biomedical, healthcare, pharmaceutical and veterinary areas. In case of non-admission, training credits will be recognized which will allow students to change faculties. This is a new mechanism that should start in 2025 and which, in fact, temporarily eliminates the entrance test. The specific study subjects have not yet been defined and it will be up to the government to select them. To access the second semester, in addition to passing all the exams, the text speaks of a “placement in a useful position in the national merit ranking”. Nonetheless, as he observes The Corriere della Sera, it is not clear how this ranking will be compiled. The Sun 24 Hours reports that, following the passing of the exams, there could be a national quiz.
The goal of “30 thousand new doctors”
Currently, this year’s admission tests will continue as scheduled. More than 71 thousand students have registered to participate in the tests, set for May 28 and July 30, with over 60 thousand candidates for the Faculty of Medicine and 7,862 registered for Veterinary Medicine. If the entire process is successful, the new mechanism should come into force in 2025. According to estimates from the Ministry of University and Research, at least 30 thousand new doctors will be trained in the coming years. The president of the National Federation of Orders of Surgeons and Dentists (Fnomceo), Filippo Anelli, is furious, according to which the abolition of the current system will prove counterproductive. «We are clearly against it, and this is absolutely not a rule of common sense: eliminating the restricted number in Medicine means that in 10 years, the time needed to train a doctor, we will have a plethora of graduates who will have no chance of finding a job I work as doctors. We will only produce unemployed people”, comments Anelli.
Free access and exams in the first semester
According to the provisions of the text of the law now in the Senate, the government will have to adopt – within twelve months from the date of entry into force of the law – one or more legislative decrees for the revision of the admission procedures to the courses of Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine. The executive will also have to guarantee the implementation of uniform and coordinated programs, as well as the harmonization of the course study plans, for a total of university training credits (CFU) defined at a national level. It is required that admission to the second semester of the master’s degree courses depends on the completion of all the credits required for the first semester exams, carried out according to uniform standards, and on the position in the national merit ranking. In the event that one is not admitted to the second semester of the Medicine, Veterinary and Dentistry courses, the credits obtained by the students in the first exams must be recognized for transfer to another course of studies chosen as an alternative, with the obligation and free double enrollment limited to the first semester.
