Martina Jaureguy The Argentine government will strengthen the criteria for validating medical degrees issued in foreign universities after dozens of aspiring residents — many of them from other countries — were accused of cheating in their residency exam and forced to retake it. None of those tested again were able to reach the unusually high scores they had achieved on their first try. One of them was an Ecuadorian medic who was caught using Ray-Ban ‘Meta’ smart lenses to presumably get the right answers.
A communiqué from the human capital ministry released on Friday said that, after the results of the new exam, the university policies undersecretariat will only validate medical degrees that meet the international standards set by the World Federation for Medical Education. This means medics from universities that don’t comply with this criteria will no longer be able to sit for residency exams in Argentina.
“This will limit access to the residency exam to universities that can guarantee quality processes similar to those in place in Argentina, so that all medics […] comply with the same academic standards,” the ministry said. “This is an act of justice for all students who obtain their degrees with great effort, accounting to the great academic requirements demanded by medicine and adopted by our universities.”
The scandal broke last month when Argentina’s health ministry announced that all aspiring medical residents with a score of over 86 points on their entrance exams would have to retake the test they had sat for on July 1 after finding that most of the people who had achieved that score or over came from foreign universities, something unusual for this exam. In hundreds of cases — also including a few Argentines — the score did not match their academic history.
In Argentina, all aspiring residents have to sit for the same exam on the same day all across the country. The exam is carried out by the health ministry and it allows for medics with high scores to be able to enter the most prestigious institutions in the country. Depending on their score, they get to choose where they want to carry out their residency.
After the health ministry began looking into the “inconsistencies” in the results, there were claims that the questions were on sale in advance. The government did not address those claims and it remains unclear whether it actually happened. However, a video that surfaced in WhatsApp groups for aspiring residents showed an Ecuadorian medic recording the questions while taking the exam.
The health ministry said that they suspect the medic recorded the questions and sent them to “an external agent” who was in charge of sending him the questions. “Through chat groups (Telegram, WhatsApp), this person could have sent the right answers, allowing for the fraud to become massive,” the ministry said in a recent press release.
The decision to have the medics retake their exams was the subject of harsh criticism from aspiring residents who claimed that their scores did match their academic history, while many also questioned potential xenophobia from the government.
The health ministry ultimately analyzed the academic history of the 268 aspiring residents and announced that 127 of them — including 110 Argentines and 17 who came from other countries — did not have to retake the exam, while 141 — 133 of them foreign and 8 Argentines — would have to sit for it again after finding “inconsistencies” between their score and their academic history.
The new exam was held on Thursday. None of the 117 aspiring residents that sat for the exam again achieved the score they had achieved on their first try, while 24 did not show up. According to a tally published by the health ministry showing the results, all of them got much lower scores than they originally had.
Out of the 117 aspiring residents that retook the exam, 109 had degrees from foreign universities, the ministry said.
The Ecuadorian aspiring resident who used the Ray-Ban ‘Meta’ lenses also retook the exam and got 69 points, compared to his original score of 92, according to the health ministry.
Last week, the health ministry announced it had filed a criminal complaint against the Ecuadorian medic and others that are accused of cheating for alleged “fraud against public administration” given they sought to “obtain a scholarship funded by the state” and caused additional expenditures because the exam had to be repeated.
In a press release, it also said the move could have caused a “health risk” for the Argentine population because it “displaced” those who were “actually fit” for the residency. They did not clarify how many people are being investigated for this.