Many of Luxembourg's medical students will be able to return to university in September, which may cause a new shortage in staff in the national health sector. Even though infection numbers have been on the rise recently, there are currently no medical students employed to help fight the crisis, except within the large-scale-testing procedures.
The Grand Duchy is highly dependent on foreign doctors, and it is to be noted that about two thirds of active practitioners will retire within the next 15 years. Around 30% of Luxembourgish medical students decide to stay abroad after finishing university. According to Frédéric Schwarz, the link to Luxembourg is then easily lost if a person decides to stay away for more than 10 years.
ALEM therefore regrets that there is still no Master's program at the university of Luxembourg for medical students. Schwarz had little understanding for the reasoning of Minister of Education Claude Meisch, who explained that such a program would endanger the privileged access to foreign universities. The vice chairman noted that most of Luxembourgish medical students would chose to study in Germany, where no privilege was in place anyways.
