Medical residencies: Universidad de Manabí acknowledged that it doesn't count failing grades

Students from the Universidad de Manabí in Ecuador are at the center of a controversy because in the Unique Medical Residency Exam in Argentina they obtained scores that raised suspicions.

An official investigation revealed anomalous results in more than 200 exams. The measure affects 268 applicants who scored 86 points or more, whose results were called into question due to inconsistencies with their academic backgrounds.

As a result, the Ministry of Health of the Nation, led by Mario Lugones, decided that the test will be administered again.

Of the 268 affected, 149 hold degrees from foreign universities and 119 from national universities. In total, more than 11,000 professionals took the exam at 26 locations across the country; 8,000 did so at Parque Roca, where most of the anomalies were detected, especially among applicants from Ecuador, Colombia, and Bolivia.

According to official data, out of a total of 2,833 foreign applicants who took the medical residency exam, 1,045 are from Ecuador, 787 from Colombia, 383 from Bolivia, 312 from Brazil, 114 from Venezuela, and 61 from Peru.

What happened with the students from Universidad de Manabí

The rector of the Universidad Técnica de Manabí, which has nine doctors among the top 27 in the ranking, stated that at his institution, failing grades are not included in the final average shown on the transcript.

In a revealing conversation with Eduardo Feinmann and Doctor Claudio Zin, Santiago Quiróz Fernández, the highest authority of the aforementioned university, acknowledged it after some follow-up questions from the journalists.

-Are the students' failing grades included in the transcript?
 

-I don't quite understand your question. The Universidad de Manabí is governed by the academic regulations issued by the Higher Education Council of the Republic of Ecuador.
 

-Let's see... are failing grades included in the final transcript or not?
 

-The student has a percentage from each of the academic activities that are counted, and they have a final grade through an exam.
 

-Let's see... are only the passing grades counted or all of them?

-The regulations allow a student to take a course up to three times, meaning if they don't pass the first time, they can do so two more times. The final grade is the one included in the transcript.

Mario Lugones: "We came to put an end to the culture of cheating and reward effort"

"As Minister of Health of the Nation, my responsibility is to protect public health and ensure that those who are trained do so under fair, transparent, and merit-based conditions," said Minister of Health of the Nation, Mario Lugones, who emphasized that the Unique Medical Residency Exam will be administered again.

Lugones emphasized that this measure will not tarnish all those professionals who took the exam honestly. "This doesn't tarnish the efforts of the more than 11,000 professionals who took the exam honestly. On the contrary, we seek to protect those who did things right, recognize their work, and ensure equal conditions," he said.

"For this Government, merit and honesty are values to be defended: we came to put an end to the culture of cheating and reward effort. Public health is not built on privileges, but on commitment and transparency," the minister concluded.