Saudi Arabia

Experience of establishment of multiple mini structure interview as part of student admission policy at Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, 2011-2012.

Faculty of Medicine (FOM), King Abdulaziz University (KAU), requested for international recognition by the Laison Committee of Canadian Medical Education (LCME) during the period 2008–2010. Selection of medical students was a must standard in LCME. After obtaining a written permission from higher administration at KAU, a committee for the establishment of multiple-mini-interview (MMI) was formed and they conducted workshops to train faculty members at FOM on such process. The interviews were set up in a manner similar to that of an objective-structured clinical evaluation (OSCE), with the applicant moving from one station to another. The applicant was either asked to discuss a scenario or respond to direct questions. The interviewers used a standardized scoring form to rate candidates. When the data were analyzed, it was found that the performance of men students was insignificantly higher than that of women students in stations concerned with personnel character and professionalism. The performance of women students was significantly higher in all other stations (those considered motivation, morals and bioethics, team work and communication skills and behaviors). The womens overall performance was significantly higher than men.

A matter of degrees: The introduction of clinical doctorates to the Saudi higher education system and a comparative prospective from the American model

Recent unprecedented growth in Saudi population challenged its infrastructure and intensified demand for higher education and healthcare. In response, both the government and the private sector founded numerous colleges and universities, increasing the overall number from 8 to 49 institutions of higher education. A significant portion of the expansion has been in the health professions higher education, which also included the establishment of new teaching hospitals and other medical training facilities. As part of this growth, practice (clinical) doctorates have conspicuously made their presence felt in Saudi Arabia. The doctor of pharmacy is the first clinical doctorate that has been formally adopted as the terminal professional degree in the field. Others are in the works. Results are presented using descriptive methods. Data were collected from reviews of the literature and individual institutional websites of Saudi colleges, universities and salient governmental regulatory and national accrediting agencies. This article will introduce clinical doctorates, their status and state of implementation in the American health professions higher education system as a possible model. The article will review the current status of clinical doctorates’ implementation in Saudi Arabia. It will conclude with a recommendation for concerned stake holders, including policy makers, educators, and practitioners.