Dear Sir
The admission of international students continues to increase in Taiwan and in other nations; however, no one has examined how these students change the makeup of Taiwanese medical school classes, neither how international students fare academically once they are already in medical school. In this study, we examine how international students at a Taiwanese medical school diversify their classes and how they perform academically in comparison to their peers.
From 2003 to 2007 we surveyed 531 students (513 Taiwanese students and 18 international students) that matriculated at the National Yang Ming University School of Medicine. Questions concerned socioeconomic status, physical health, mental health, and specific character traits. We also obtained each student's GPA.
International students were more likely to be female (p = 0.02), to have less educated fathers (p = 0.005) and less educated mothers (p < 0.001) than Taiwanese students. Additionally, international students did not significantly differ from Taiwanese students in terms of both their cumulative and first-year GPAs.
As there is currently a significantly larger percentage of male medical students than female medical students at our institution, international students serve to balance this gender disparity. In addition, research has shown that students of low socioeconomic status are underrepresented in medical schools, leading medical educators to warn that a medical education is becoming something that is exclusively for students from rich families. Our results imply that the admission of international medical students to our university can increase the range of students’ socioeconomic backgrounds.
The admission of international students to our medical school has not only brought unique perspectives to our campus, but has also led to less gender inequality and more socioeconomic diversity. Further, these students have shown themselves to be just as academically competent as Taiwanese medical students. Thus our results show that in Taiwan, international students can greatly increase diversity with limited drawbacks.