The ordinary general assembly of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate approved, on Friday, October 23, 2026, demanding a reduction in the number of students admitted to medical schools and linking any increase to more training places during study and after graduation and postgraduate opportunities after the internship, and requiring the general secondary certificate or its equivalent among the documents for registration with the syndicate starting next year, among 11 decisions it issued at its meeting at Dar El-Hekma in Cairo.
The assembly called for halting the admission of new students to medical schools that have not established a university hospital, and for not accepting the registration of their new students with the syndicate starting next year if they do not establish one within the set deadline. It decided to prepare a legislative amendment to the third clause of Article 20 of Law No. 162 of 2018 on international university branches, so that admission rules there become subject to national rules with a minimum score set by the Ministry of Higher Education, in addition to the parent university’s conditions, and to address the government so that the share of international students in public medical schools does not exceed 5%. It also approved the general principles for regulating doctors’ media appearances, and authorized the syndicate council to complete their drafting in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Population and the Supreme Council for Media Regulation.
Head of the Doctors Syndicate Osama Abdel Hay said in his speech to the assembly that the syndicate does not oppose increasing admissions in principle, but rejects any increase that does not match the actual capacity of the schools, in hospital beds, lecture halls, practical training places and faculty members, and added that “a medical school may not be established without a university teaching hospital.” He noted that some schools used to admit about 1,200 students and now admit 3,000 or more, and that some interns receive training only two or three days a week.
Abdel Hay said the Supreme Council of Universities recommended not admitting new students to medical schools that have not established university hospitals starting next academic year, that the syndicate will follow up on implementing the recommendation, and that it has held this position since its councils’ decisions in 2019. He added that solving the shortage of doctors depends on improving their professional and financial conditions, not only on increasing the number of schools or admissions.
Photo: Faris knight via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
