Singapore’s newest medical school, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine), will start in August with its first batch of 54 students. This is a five-year programme leading to a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), awarded jointly by Nanyang Technological University and Imperial College London.
A total of 817 applied and from there, 440 candidates were shortlisted to attend the school’s series of eight short interviews (known as the Multiple Mini Interviews) with health-care professions, such as nurses, as well as members of the public, who assessed the candidates from the patient’s perspective.
90 per cent of the final 54 chosen medical students are among top in their cohort. They had excellent scores in the Multiple Mini Interviews and also aced their BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT).
Currently, the total local intake of medical students is about 400 a year among the three medical schools, with National University of Singapore taking 300 students for their Medicine course annually. The plan is to increase the intake of LKCMedicine to 150 students annually, to meet the needs of Singapore.