Qatar University College of Medicine (QU-CMED) has enrolled 93 new students, including 58 Qataris, to its Class of 2022, which began its journey towards the MD degree last month.
Compared to last year, there is an increase of 16% students this year. While 73% of the new applicants were accepted into the first year (General Medicine), 27% were enrolled as Foundation students.  
Nine transfer students were also admitted into Class of 2022, coming from other colleges within QU and 13 Qatari students who were admitted last year to the Medicine Foundation have joined the cohort.
All Qatari applicants who met the criteria were admitted. International applicants competed for the remaining seats. The admission process this year was highly competitive with 1,009 students applying. Though 616 of them met the admission criteria, only 15% of those were enrolled. For international students, the cut-off high-school GPA was at a minimum of 99.0%.  They come from a wide range of schools in Doha. Additionally, four students from medical schools in the UK and Saudi Arabia transferred to QU College of Medicine.
QU vice president for Medical Education and CMED dean Prof Egon Toft said with an eye on the increase in the number of applicants, the admission committee is looking into the possibility of revising admission criteria and admission processes to ensure maintaining a suitable balance between quality and individualised focus, and to maximise the number of graduates to meet the high demand in the health care sector for locally trained highly qualified medical doctors.
CMED associate dean for clinical affairs Dr Abdullatif al-Khal observed that the estimated needs of the healthcare sector in Qatar for medical graduates is around 200 new doctors every year.
“However, this level of demand should not be the main driver and should not compromise the quality of education offered at CMED, the rigour expected from students and educators, or the necessary diligence of continuously assessing and improving the admission criteria,” he said.
CMED associate dean for academic affairs Prof Hossam Hamdy said the programme matches up to date international standards and outcome competencies of a graduate practicing medicine in 2021.
CMED acting assistant dean for student affairs Ghada al-Kuwari said: “We are very pleased to see an increase in the intake of the College and in the number of applicants especially in the number of national students. We hope this number continues to rise and that the efforts the college is exerting towards attracting Qatari students to the medical profession will continue to be fruitful.”