Amine Ardhaoui is a 23 year old medical student from Tunis, Tunisia.

Do you live with your parents or on your own?
On my own. With 2 other medical students we share a flat (3 rooms+ kitchen+ bathroom+ sitting room) for €220 per month.  Almost all the students who aren’t native of Tunis, the capital city, live this way, a few of them, especially girls, live in private halls of residence.

How’s university life in Tunis?
Globally, the university life in Tunisia is poor, but there are exceptions. As political groups are not allowed to be active in the university, and as founding an association is not always easy, the main student activity in most of the universities is “parties” and “excursions”. It’s also due to the fact that both students and the university are focused on the academic aspect of the studies without giving a big importance to the social student’s life. In the Medical Faculty of Tunis it’s different, and that’s essentially thanks to Associa-Med and the support of our Faculty, we have the 6 IFMSA committees which are very active on both levels; nationally and internationally, but we also have internal committees such as: Culture, Sport, Festivity, Newspaper, Excursions and Website which are mainly active inside the university.

In which study year are you?
Third year.

How many years is medical school in Tunisia?
Medical school curriculum consists of 5 years, the first two years are theoretical containing all basic sciences related to medicine, the last three years consisting of clinical issues related to all medical specialties, the student gets the status of "Externe", during these last 3 years the student has to attend at the university hospital every day, rotating around all wards. Every period is followed by a clinical exam regarding his knowledge in that particular specialty. After those 5 years, there are two years on internship, in which the student is basically a physician but under the supervision of the chief doctor, the student rotates over the major and most essential specialties during period of 4 months each. After that the student has the choice of either passing the residency national exam or extending his internship for another year after which he gains the status of family physician. The residency program consists of 4 to 5 years in the specialty he qualifies depending on his score in the national residency examination under the rule of highest score chooses first. Whether the student chooses to be a family doctor or a specialized one, he has to make a doctorate thesis which he will be defending in front of a jury, after which he gains his degree of Doctor of Medicine.

How many hours a week do you spend on your study?
We have to go to the Hospital every morning from 8 to 12, then we have lessons at the Faculty from 2pm till 6pm, and at night we are supposed to study at least 3 hours (This is the perfect plan for the perfect Tunisian medical student, which isn’t my case for sure ;) )

Is it possible for everyone to study medicine in Tunisia?
In Tunisia education is free for all Tunisian citizens and for foreigners who have scholarships. Medical school is a faculty of the University of Tunis, there are 5 medicine faculties situated in the major cities. Admission is bound to the success and score in the baccalaureate examination. Admission score threshold is pretty high based on competition amongst all applicants throughout the nation.

What do you think is the best part of the medical education in Tunisia?
One of the bases of our educational system is to learn at the patient’s bedside. The hospital everyday trainings are very important; it allows us to learn better and especially to get used to the practical aspect of medicine not only the theoretical one.

If you can change one thing of the medical education in Tunisia, what would that be?
The exams system. Although our system is mainly based on the practical aspect (trainings at the hospital, etc..) the exams are only about the theoretical part of the medical studies. Our Exams system evaluates our abilities to memorize tons of pages in a short time.

You are involved in IFMSA and especially during the general assembly’s (GA’s) you meet a lot of different medical students from all over the world. What do you think that is the biggest difference in study medicine in The Netherlands and Tunisia?
Concerning the educational system, studies are shorter in The Netherlands but in Tunisia we have more opportunities to practice, and to learn “the how to do”. IFMSA-Netherlands is bigger, has more experience and is better organized than Associa-Med since we have only one (big) local committee. If I had to give an advice to IFMSA-Netherlands it would be “take the things a bit more easier”  and  to Associa-Med “Take it a bit more serious”

Describe your life in 2020….
I choose to study medicine because my dream was to work with “Médecins sans frontières”... I guess I’ll be working with a NGO somewhere in the world. My new dream is to improve the public health system in Tunisia.

Photo by See Wah Cheng, shared under Creative Common License