Salemba, October 7th 2023. Rector of Universitas Indonesia (UI), Prof. Ari Kuncoro, S.E., M.A., Ph.D. inaugurated Prof. Dr. Diantha Soemantri, MMedEd, Ph.D as Professor in the Field of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine (FK) UI, on Saturday (7/10), at the IMERI Hall FKUI Salemba, Jakarta. Prof. Diantha was inaugurated as a professor after delivering a scientific oration entitled “Transformation of the Student Selection and Recruitment System as the First Gatekeeper of Efforts to Improve the Quality of Health Human Resources”.
In her speech, Prof. Diantha said that currently, the student selection system for Medical Education, especially the undergraduate medical education stage, still emphasizes selection based on cognitive or academic attributes. This model makes the student population less diverse or inclusive—especially for groups from certain socio-economic circles—and is not in line with the competencies expected of medical graduates. In fact, Medical Education is required to produce doctors who are capable and skilled, as well as having qualified professionalism.
A number of studies show that violations of ethics and discipline in medical practice can be predicted by the occurrence of unprofessional behavior during education. Students who commit professional violations during education are more likely to commit ethical and disciplinary violations during practice. Thus, since the selection process, screening of prospective students based on their professionalism attributes needs to be carried out. This is because the process of educating doctors requires large resources, which is why use of resources must be directed to candidates who are “fit for practice”.
The method that can be used to select students based on non-cognitive attributes is the Situational Judgment Test (STJ). Based on research by Soemantri, et al. (2022), SJT is a reliable tool for assessing non-cognitive attributes and has a good impact on the diversity of the medical student population. Various studies abroad also prove that SJT is useful for expanding the population (widening participation), including reaching underrepresented minorities.
The principle of widening participation is in line with the government’s efforts to increase the number of specialist doctors and equalize their distribution. This effort begins with improving the selection system, namely by choosing the best and the ones that fit the requirements. This means that selected candidates must meet the criteria and be able to be placed in an appropriate location. To retain selected specialist doctors, regulations are needed in order to ensure health service needs in that location are met.
According to her, the selection and recruitment process for prospective students requires the cooperation of various parties, namely the government, educational institutions, health service institutions, teaching hospitals and colleges. The process of designing, implementing, and evaluating the selection and recruitment system needs to be the focus of joint work because this is a high stakes assessment. The implications of an invalid selection and recruitment process will have a huge impact on individual students, educational institutions, and society.
The process of determining the selection system must refer to the needs of the country, socio-economic conditions of the community, and the health service system. Therefore, the formulation of selection policies is very dependent on many factors, such as the validity of the method, the availability of supporting resources, the demographic and socio-economic conditions of the community, the number and distribution of health human resources (HR) in the region, the community’s need for health services, and practices based on current literature.
“The transformation of the selection system for prospective Specialist Doctor Education participants not only integrates selection methods based on non-cognitive attributes, but also includes the process of determining student quotas at each organizing institution, as well as policies/regulations for retaining specialist doctors for a certain period of time at the location placement. This transformation is also the beginning of realizing health human resources that contribute to the welfare of Indonesian society,” said Prof. Diantha.
Before conducting a study on the transformation of the selection system for prospective Medical Education participants, Prof. Diantha has done a lot of research. Some of them are Looking Beyond the Covid-19 Pandemic: the Recalibration of Student-Teacher Relationships in Teaching and Learning Process (2023), Are We Ready to Collaborate? The Inter-professional Collaborative Competencies of Healthcare Professionals in the Global South Context (2022), and The Practice of Feedback in Health Professions Education in the Hierarchical and Collectivist Culture: A Scoping Review (2022).
Prof. Dr. Diantha Soemantri, MMedEd, Ph.D. completed Medical Education at FKUI in 2005; completed a Masters in Medical Education (MMedEd) at the University of Dundee, Scotland, in 2007; and earned a Ph.D. (Medical Education) at Melbourne Medical School, Australia, in 2013. Currently, she serves as Deputy Director for Medical Education, Indonesian Medical Education and Research Institute (IMERI) FKUI and is Deputy Chair of Division 1 PP PERPIPKI (Association of Medical Education Science Reviewers Indonesia).
The inauguration procession of professor Prof. Diantha was also attended by the Chair of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences for the 2018–2023 period, Prof. Dr. Ir. Satryo Soemantri Brodjonegoro; Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Diponegoro University, Prof. Dr. dr. Tri Nur Kristina, DMM., M.Kes. ; Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Hasanudin University, Prof. Dr. Dr. Suryani As’ad, Sp.GK (K); and Rector of UI for the 2014–2019 period, Prof. Dr. Ir. Muhammad Anis, M. Met.
