2019 Czech Republic Entrance Exams in Hong Kong

For the second consecutive year Medical Doorway hosted a series of entrance exams in Hong Kong. Five of our Czech Republic universities made the long journey from Central Europe to this major Asian city.

Hong Kong and the surrounding countries have a chronic shortage of doctors and are experiencing rapidly aging populations. This is placing increasing demands on the local healthcare systems. Without enough seats to train local aspiring doctors and dentists, students are having to look further afield.

A core demand of East Asian students are universities with a high world-ranking and a track record of graduating high quality medical practitioners. This is why the Czech universities have proven to be so popular in recent years. Students travelled from India, Canada, Mexico, Kuwait, the USA and Japan. This was of course in addition to local Hong Kong based applicants.  We continued our relationship with King George V ESF school in Ho Man Tin, hosting the exams in their premises. Unlike student recruitment agencies, Medical Doorway works directly with schools all over the world and we have special permission to run these exams in this elite Hong Kong school.

Five exams held in Hong Kong

The exams started on Thursday 30th May with Masaryk University; represented by Head of International Admission Helena Melicharova. The faculty in Brno is one of Europe’s leading centres of medical education. Students who opt to study at Masaryk will soon benefit from one of the world’s largest clinical simulation centres. Charles University Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Kralove held their exam the following day.

On Saturday 1st June, Ben Ambrose (Managing Director) led a tour of some of the main sights in Hong Kong. The tour took in the ferry ride to Lantau Island to visit the Po Lin monastery and the Tian Tan Buddha.

The exams continued with Palacky University holding their exam on 2nd June. Professor Jiri Novotny joined us again. Professor Novotny marked the papers immediately and some of the highest results ever seen demonstrated the exceptional academic quality of the applicants.

A three strong delegation from Charles University Second Faculty of Medicine conducted their inaugural Hong Kong exam. The team were amazed by the level of knowledge on display and quality of answers in the interviews. The final exam was for admission to the world-famous Charles University First Faculty in Prague. We were delighted to be welcoming Dean of the Faculty Professor Aleksi Sedo (DSc) in addition to Vice-Dean Professor Martin Vokurka. The standard set by our current Hong Kong students at Charles University has raised awareness of the exceptional quality of the local education system. Professor Sedo wanted to meet this year’s applicants face to face and learn more about the educational philosophy in Hong Kong. As expected, the passing rate for this exam was far in excess of the average for Czech Republic entrance exams.

Continuing our Hong Kong outreach activity

With Professor Sedo in Hong Kong it was an ideal opportunity to visit schools across the territory. The schools were excited to learn more about studying medicine and dentistry in The Czech Republic.

We first held a meeting at King George V with Principal Mark Blackshaw and head of college counselling Andrew Deakin. A meeting with the college counselling team at the prestigious Victoria Shanghai Academy gave a different perspective. VSA caters mainly to local Hong Kong students and also students from mainland China. The last school visit was at the picturesque Discovery College on Lantau Island. Discovery College had a more international student cohort and applicants from DC secured offers in the 2019 exams.

The exam dates for 2020 are already scheduled and will run from 28th May to 2nd June 2020. Before this we will be visiting numerous schools in Hong Kong in September 2019 & January 2020.

Still time to enrol in September 2019

If you are a student with an aspiration to study at one of the world-ranked programmes in The Czech Republic, we are still open for applications. Apply now using our central application form and sit our June/July exams which are being held in London and Manchester.

Medical Doorway, slamming the door on student recruitment agencies!