Ranking of the medical schools in the Dominican Republic 2020

Autor: Luis Despradel MD

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In the world directory of medical schools, 17 schools appear under the Dominican Republic. Out of those, 11 are active and are main institutions, while 6 are not active nor the main campus of the institution.

Active Medical Schools

1. Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, (UASD).

2. Universidad Católica Nordestana, (UCNE).

3. O&M, Medical School, (O&Med).

4. Instituto Tecnológico Dominicano, (INTEC).

5. Universidad Católica del Cibao, (UCATECI).

6. Pontifica Universidad católica Madre y Maestra, (PUCMM).

7. Universidad Central del Este, (UCE).

8. Universidad Eugenio María de Hostos, (UNIREMHOS).

9. Universidad Iberoamericana, (UNIBE).

10. Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña, (UNPHU).

11. Universidad Tecnológica de Santiago, (UTESA).

Inactive Medical Schools

1. Universidad Centro de Estudios Tecnológicos, (C.E.T.E.C).- Closed

2. Universidad Mundial Dominicana, Escuela de Medicina. - Closed

3. Universidad Centro de Investigación, (C.I.F.A.S.). - Closed

4. Universidad Federico Henríquez y Carvajal, (UFHEC). - Technical School/ No medicine

5. Universidad Internacional Eugenio María de Hostos, (UNIREMHOS). - Still in directory but based on old name.

6. Universidad Tecnológica de Santiago, (UTESA).

a. Santo Domingo Campus- Inactive

Method

For this ranking, 36 medical professionals from the Dominican Republic were surveyed. They must be currently enrolled or have graduated from a medical school in the Dominican Republic. They were questioned through social media (Instagram private message and WhatsApp) with the question:

How would you rank the Medical Schools from the Dominican Republic?

No further instructions were given. If asked the purpose, it was explained that it was for a report to the program director of a program.

Weaknesses

· Small sample.

· Heterogeneity of the criteria for ranking.

· Selection bias and observer effect. Not all alumni/students from every university were polled.

Strengths

· Diversity of opinion. Sample size >1.

· Insight from different perspective.

· A more wholistic view of ranking and name recognition of the medical schools in the Dominican Republic.

· Some qualitative data to assess some form of picture of the thinking behind rankings

Discussion

Ranking universities is a very subjective and hard process. Based on the information acquired in the survey, we can say that most of the individuals surveyed had a favorable view of INTEC (44%), followed by UNIBE (42%) and UNPHU (22%), by putting these universities in their number one spot. Name recognition could have played a big role in the ranking system, as only UNPHU, UNIBE, INTEC and UASD were mentioned by more than 50% of the individuals, while the other universities were ignored by over 50% of the surveys. This factor can cause outliers like O&Med that while not mentioned by 58% of the subjects, was put in the first position by 11% of the individuals that had an opinion about it.

The top three schools would be INTEC, UNIBE and UNPHU as they were stated to be in the top 3 by 83%, 70% and 60% of the individuals that had them on their list, respectively. The UASD had the most heterogenous spread withing the ranking, but it was put in the top 3 by 44% of the individuals that had it in their list. Another aspect to note is that PUCMM and O&Med are close contenders for the top 3 with 28% and 20% of individuals ranking them in their top 3.

Personally, I believe this interpretation is not far from reality and my opinion. Regardless, there is a deeper truth to be stated that the merits of the individual will not be limited by the institution that they study in, the “quality” of the institution would only present a floor on which the individual can sore from, and from there the sky is the limit.

Acknowledgement

Special thanks to everyone who took their time to take the survey and review the final report.