Wilfrid Laurier University and St. George’s University (SGU) in Grenada, an accredited international medical school, have launched a new admission cooperation for qualifying students to enroll in the School of Medicine at SGU on a fast-track basis. Over 23,000 graduates from the School of Medicine have entered the global healthcare system.
Through this pathway, students who successfully finish Laurier’s four-year health science program can apply for SGU’s four-year MD program. This also benefits the students who are currently enrolled in pre-medical courses and in their third year.
The program is also open to students who have graduated from Laurier within the last five years. Canadian students applying from Laurier must have a cumulative GPA of 9.0 and Science course GPA of 8.0, have a minimum of two but no more than five recommendation letters and complete an interview to be eligible. They must also complete a list of required courses.
“We wanted to partner for a couple of reasons. One of the things that SGU has is that they are able to maintain their accreditation with- out requiring an MCAT score or a standardized test,” said Richelle Monaghan, the vice dean of the faculty of science and a health sciences and biology professor at Laurier. The main reason for this partnership was to close the gap of Canadian and international students interested in medicine, but who are not eligible to apply to Canadian medical schools.
At the Northern Ontario School of Medicine University in Thunder Bay, the entering class of 2024 only had 88 seats available. From 2019 to 2020, only 117 offers were made to students who applied to the Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Faculty of Medicine. SGU has an estimated admission rate of 56 per cent, but the university has not posted a concrete total.Laurier students are also granted scholarships based on their GPA while enrolling in this pathway.
Students who are accepted into the program and obtain the required overall GPA and sciences GPA will receive a scholarship of $85,000 to the SGU School of Medicine.
“Qualified candidates are eligible to be considered for additional SGU scholarships,” said Monaghan. “They can be stacked, such as the Chancellor’s Circle Legacy of Excellent, currently valued at $120,000 US.”
Students can complete the basic science component of SGU’s MD program through two years of study at the Grenada campus or one year at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom and one year in Grenada.
Students in the program can complete their clinical rotations in the U.K. “Several healthcare systems benefit from it as well. However, it’s a positive experience to work in different nations and gain a taste of the various healthcare systems in the U.S., Canada or the U.K. when conducting clinical rotations,” said Monaghan.
She also explained how she has personally experienced watching high-performing students wish to get into medical school, but not have the patience to wait to get into a Canadian medical school.
“When we look at in the Canadian scenario of over 47,000 applications to medical schools in a year for less than 3,000 seats, there’s a high, high demand,” said Monaghan. “Our health sciences program is very successful at helping our graduates get into Canadian medical schools, but still there’s a lot of students who are interested in in practicing medicine and they just don’t have an opportunity.”
When asked about the program, students from Health Occupation Students’ Association Laurier (HOSA) were excited about the possibility of going.
“I think it’s great, honestly. I understand how difficult it is getting into med school in Canada, so this kind of helps bridge the gap,” said Malaika Jafri, one of the HOSA co-presidents and a fourth-year health sciences student at Laurier. “I think my main concern for this is match rates comparing to Caribbean med school, but I think most Canadians that apply and do this will likely to have strong stats.”
