Lottery to be scrapped for medical students, fixed places remain

All students who want to study medicine will be allocated a place on the basis of their school exam results and motivation, rather than through a lottery, if health minister Edith Schippers has her way.


At the moment there are around 3,000 places available a year at medical schools, around half of which are allocated to the cleverest students and the rest through a lottery.
The minister’s plan to abolish the lottery will be discussed at today’s cabinet meeting. However, the fixed number of places at medical schools will remain.
Some 40,000 students take part in a lottery each academic year in the hope of being accepted for the course of their choice. Apart from medicine, psychology, law and business studies are most likely to have a fixed number of places.
Most Dutch universities do not select students on the basis of exam results.

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