The Medical School Story

The German Supreme Court stood up this morning and told the government that the current method that is used by German public colleges to select folks for medical school.....won't pass the law.  So the court said.....you've got two years (end of 2019) for the federal and state governments of Germany to reform the method of selection for medical school.

The instruction for change?  There needs to be some safeguard method written into the rules for equal opportunities and there has to be a standard form of interview used for aptitude interviews by the selection staff of candidates....in simple words....the same identical questionnaire. 

In an average year, there are 11,000 open slots that open up via the German university system.  Total number of applicants on a yearly basis?  Well....62,000 folks.

You can just imagine the frustration of these kids. 

What generally happens is that you come up and present your grades and paperwork....then go to an interview with the selection committee.  You get ranked.  They can turn you down, but keep you in the rotation.....so your name is on the list but it might be three to five years before you get your chance in the system.

So the kid sits there and decides....ok, he won't waste his time....he'll go to nursing school and knock out that degree now, and just wait four years for the next open medical school slot.

Why not open up the schools and add another 300 professors or instructors nationwide?  Well....that's not how the German medical school system works.  Back in the 1990s when Bill Gates told the university in Germany of the coming need for more IT engineers....the German heads of the university system just laughed.  Four years later, Bill Gates was proven correct, and the Germans had an enormous IT sector ready for new employees who didn't exist. 

The German court system has a unique feature in that they can declare a law invalid, and force the legislative system to come in and repair the law (replace it).  Unlike the US system, where it's simply thrown out....there is a period of time given to the legislature to rewrite this and present something that fits what the court prescribes.  Can the German legislature refuse to rewrite it?  Yes....although that rarely happens.