Age restriction for medical studies at Tel Aviv University discriminatory

Who’s afraid of Arab doctors?

Ostensibly, it’s a purely academic decision: The Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University has decided that from now on only students who are over 20-years-old can enroll at the faculty.

On the face of it, this is a pedagogical decision: Older students are supposed to have the emotional resilience and maturity necessary for the study of medicine. In reality, and according to registration data during the past few years, the main implication of this decision will be to cut back the number of Arab students enrolled at the faculty.

As young Arab students are exempt from military service they can commence their academic studies immediately after graduating high school. Medicine is among the most popular subjects among young Arab students. Yet despite this, the number of students enrolled in doctoral studies at the Faculty of Medicine during 2004/5 stood at just 4.4 percent (while Arabs constitute 19.7 percent of the population.)

Many difficulties face a young Arab on his or her way to establishing their professional future, and fear that they may not find employment that would suit their educational background is a main factor influencing their decision-making process.

Many top high school graduates will not select the high-tech profession, out of fear that they may not find employment at leading companies. Therefore, they often opt for the more conservative professions, those which can be applied independently, such as lawyers, accountants and pharmacists.

For the time being, medicine is the only ray of light in this professional world. Integration of Arab doctors in the private and public sectors is generally successful and promotions are made according to skills.

Arab achievements perceived as threat
This success, it has now become apparent, works against them. The growing number of Arab students enrolled at the Faculty of Medicine in Tel Aviv – which still falls far below their numbers in the population – can be perceived as an academic and social achievement; however, the university wants to sever the process.

Candidates who will have to wait two years to become eligible for enrollment will turn to other professions or to other schools, in Israel and abroad – namely, institutions where maturity is ascertained by personality tests and not by age.

A leading university such as Tel Aviv will not be able to hide behind the higher education bill with the argument that “a recognized institution is at liberty to finance its academic and administrative matters, within its budget, as it deems fit,” as in the response by the university’s legal advisor to a request by Adalah, the legal center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, to abolish the age restriction.

Setting an age limit will signal to Israeli society that the achievements of the Arab population are deemed as a threat and not as an opportunity. Tel Aviv University must adhere to basic social values, primarily avoiding discrimination against an entire population. Avoiding the matter may actually testify to the lack of resilience and maturity on the part of the Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University.

Ref: Ynet, H. Kittani, H. Marmari