UQ Med Students in Local Paper

This morning there was an article in the local paper about foreign medical students at the University of Queensland.  You can read yourself

 

 Barb & I both commented on it as did at least one other med student

 Here is basically what I added plus a bit more that would not fit in the comment section:

"We would love to stay here and work in rural Australia. With the various roadblocks put in place for foreign students we may not be able to.  Why would you not want people that are passionate enough about medicine that they move half way round the world and pay 4x as much just to be able to go medical school? Are these not the kinds of people you want in your rural hospitals?

Just to answer a few questions; the reason there are so many Canadians coming to UQ is because the various federal and provincial governments have very few medical school positions available.  For example the province of Alberta with a population equal to Queensland has only 150 seats each year, whereas UQ alone has about 400 seats.  They figure it is cheaper to bring in fully trained doctors from South Africa, India, the UK, etc. instead.  As one who grew up in a remote rural area I can tell you that it doesn't help rural medicine in the long term. The doctors stay in the rural area for the minimum requirement and then move to the city.  Why not train doctors that want to work rural?"