The New Brunswick provincial government will be funding four additional medical seats to be offered in French on the Université de Moncton campus next fall.
At a press conference on Thursday, Denis Prud’homme, president and vice-chancellor of the Université de Moncton, explained that in addition to these four new seats, three seats that were previously located in Nova Scotia and one seat that was located in Prince Edward Island will be relocated to Moncton in September 2023.
The university already offers 24 spots for medical students, meaning as of next year, it will train a total of 32 medical students in French each year through a program offered by the Université de Sherbrooke.
Third year medical student Catherine Savoie, who is originally from Beresford, N.B., told Global News in an interview that she believes studying in her home province will improve her chances of working here.
“This is where I grew up, this is where my family is. I want to be here as a doctor. So studying here in Moncton lets me meet other professionals, all the other doctors I might have a chance to work with in the future and lets me see really the population I’ll be working with,” she said.
Fellow medical student Jacob Saucier echoed that sentiment.
“I think it’s very important to study in the environment you will be working in for networking purposes as much as learning about the problems that are in our population, the population we will be treating,” he said.
The Dieppe native is interested in pursuing a specialization like neurology or emergency medicine.
“In order to do specialties often you have to for two to five years to a different university (outside the province) so I’m envisioning that but I would absolutely love to come back to my hometown,” he said.
Earlier this month, the province announced ten medical seats previously offered at Memorial University in Newfoundland would be offered at the UNB Saint John campus through Dalhousie University in September 2023.
This brings the total number of medical seats offered through the province to 78, six of which are offered in Quebec.
On Thursday, Post-secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Trevor Holder hinted there may be more seats announced soon.
“We are in very serious negotiations with both (Dalhousie University and the Université de Sherbrooke) about increasing our number of seats. They’re serious, they’re happening now.”
Comments