Med School Admits Transfers Rather Than Forfeit Grants

In compliance with a controversial new law that "infringes our autonomy on admissions," the Medical School this year accepted seven transfer students from foreign medical colleges rather than forego $950,000 in federal grants, Dr. Oglesby Paul'38, director of admissions at the Med School, said yesterday.

Harvard and other universities lobbied intensely but unsuccessfully last fall to eliminate a provision in the Health Manpower Act, passed in 1976, that requires American medical schools to expand their third-year classes by five percent this year to accomodate transfers of American citizens studying in foreign schools.

Under a revision passed last fall in the face of university lobbying, American schools have had to select from a pool of foreign-trained students or else renounce their federal capitation grants--a from of aid based on the number of students enrolled in each school.

Worries for Harvard

The original bill left the distribution of transfer students to the discretion of the federal Department of Health, Education and welfare.

Congress passed the original act assuming that Americans trained abroad would eventually return to the U.S. to practice but would not be sufficiently qualified if they had spent four years studying abroad, Michael F. Brewer, director of government relations, said yesterday.

Brewer said he believes Congress will not extend the law to apply next year because "they realize it is only a temporary solution, and they want to discourage students from going abroad."

Paul agreed that the law would probably stay in effect this year only, but for a different reason: "It was a poor idea, a hot potato; and they won't do it again."

The law is unfair to some students Harvard turns away from its first-year class each fall, Paul said. "If they (transfer students) couldn't get in the first year, it isn't right for them to get in the back door now," he said.

Paul added that the new requirement is also "undemocratic." "The only people who can afford two years of medical school abroad are those with independent means, so the law discriminates against disadvantaged students."