Pull quote: ‘Some of our students come from places where women can’t walk (on the streets) after a certain hour; where you can’t drink or smoke. They’re looking for an escape’
IN a country where the corporate chatter rages around sugar, mining and the big-ticket infrastructure projects currently underway, it is easy to miss the emergence of other sectors that are quietly playing a part in diversifying the largely commodities-based economy.Since the turn of the millennium, medical education tourism has been taking root. Since the 1999 founding of the American International School of Medicine (AISM) by its US-based parent company, International Medical Educators Associates Inc (IMEA), at least three other offshore medical universities have set up operations here.

The country plays host to medical students from such varied places as First World nations UK and USA, the Asian subcontinent, the enigmatic Kingdom of Lesotho in Africa, and even war-torn Syria.

Investors are particularly attracted by the country’s status as the lone English-speaking country in South America.
The English language, by virtue of the world dominance enjoyed in turns by the United Kingdom and the United States of America, is the most widely spoken language, and it has evolved into a worldwide lingua franca, especially in international business dealing and tertiary education.

According to Administrative Officer of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Science and Technology (RGUST), Mr. Anish Kumar, this language profile of Guyana’s puts it on a footing to compete with established medical education hubs of Russia and China for the growing Indian market.

India, a former British colony in the Asian sub-continent, has a population that speaks English among many other native regional languages.

“If you go to China for your medical education, you will have to learn (Mandarin) then learn medicine in that language; or if you go to Russia, you’ll have to learn Russian first,” Kumar says.

The RGUST, an Indian-owned offshore medical school located on Sheriff Street in the capital city of Georgetown, was established in April 2011, and attracts primarily Indian students.

Guyana’s geography is also attractive, university officials point out. Unlike the medical offshore hubs of the Eastern Caribbean, which fall in the much feared hurricane belt, Guyana enjoys favourable, year-round tropical weather. With no volcanic mountain ranges or troublesome tectonic plates nearby, the country faces no other significant natural disaster either.

The country’s landscape and locale also cater for international students’ appetite for adventure.
“You have a lot of sites. You have the Kaieteur Falls, you got Orinduik (Falls),” states Dr. Ovid Isaacs, Vice President of Faculty at AISM. He added: “As a matter of fact, you can hop across the border to Brazil; you can hop across to Suriname; Trinidad is fifty minutes away, Barbados is about an hour away. Here (in Guyana) you have access to other places at minimal cost.”

Guyana’s geographical and ideological positions in the West also lend the country prestige.
“Western society is known for greater intellect, and Guyana’s being in the Western Hemisphere has its own aroma of attractiveness,” posits Registrar of the RGUST, John Moses. He adds: “You (should) see the number of people (Indian students) writing GRE exams (and) SAT.”

The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) and the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) are US-initiated entrance exams commonly taken by students entering Western graduate and undergraduate universities respectively.

The country’s reputation for pluralism makes it attractive to foreign students, particularly from repressed societies.

“Some of our students come from places where women can’t walk (on the streets) after a certain hour; where you can’t drink or smoke,” said one university official on condition of anonymity. That person added: “They’re looking for an escape.”

Guyana’s comparatively low cost of living, engendered by its low and stable exchange rate and low rate of inflation, is perhaps one of the bigger factors.

Data obtained from official online education portals shows that, tuition costs aside, accommodation and other costs associated with studying add up to approximately US$95,000 in the United States, US$95,200 in the United Kingdom, US$23,600 in China, US$16,507 in Australia, and US$16,000 in India. Studying in Guyana, by comparison, costs US$5,000 in non-tuition-related expenses.

Education investors also cite the country’s favourable regulatory environment, and hospitable officials. “We had a great bit of welcome from the Ministry of Health (and) the Ministry of Finance,” Moses says, adding: “These agencies have to be appreciated to a greater extent (for) giving us extraordinary additional support.”

The Government of Guyana continues to take deliberate steps to attract international universities to the country. Speaking this year at the Opening Ceremony of the Fourth International Building Expo, staged at the Guyana National Stadium, acting Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Mr. Irfaan Ali, revealed that the administration has been courting offshore universities to set up operations here.

A damper on investor enthusiasm, however, is the lack of reliable airlift into the country. The spectacular collapse of low-cost intra-Caribbean airlines RedJet and EZJet, and a dramatic pullout by Delta Airlines, all within the past year, have exacerbated the sense of despair over international air travel.

Compounding this was the recent spate of price gouging practised by the Trinidad and Tobago-owned Caribbean Airlines.
Dr. Isaacs, whose university attracts many students from the US, says the Delta pullout had been quite a blow, particularly since that airline had provided students with discounts on airfare.

Moses, meanwhile, feels that the lack of direct flights between Guyana and India –- from where most of RGUST’s students originate –- is the albatross keeping the South American country from competing with such offshore medical education hubs as India and China.

To this end, Moses backs the US$138 million upgrade of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport at Timehri.

“If we are going to have such a sophisticated airport, I am sure we are going to be able to have direct flights from India, and that would increase not only education tourism, but also different kinds of tourism,” he stressed.
Written By Saieed Khalil