Argentina’s health ministry has announced that aspiring medical residents with high scores on their entrance exams will have to retake the test following allegations of cheating, including claims the questions were on sale in advance.

Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said that most of the medics in question had studied at foreign universities, and that the claims had arisen after the government “corrected an injustice” by giving medics from Argentine universities five extra points in the exam.

On Thursday, Adorni said in his morning press conference that the exam results were “suspicious” and “incongruous with the academic history of their universities and grade point averages.”

In total, 268 medics scored 86 points or more in the exam. The maximum was 100. Of those, Adorni said that 149 (56%) were graduates of foreign universities and the rest were from Argentine universities.

“We think what’s happening is horrible,” said Agustina, a medic from the University of Buenos Aires, to the Herald’s sister news channel C5N. She did not give her surname. Agustina said she had a grade point average of 8.6 out of 10 in her undergraduate degree — in line with the 86 points she received in her exam. 

“They have all our data, our grade transcript, our academic history. We don’t think annulling our exam should be a valid option.”

Around 5,000 medics sat the exam, which was held at venues around the country. Afterwards, some of those who had taken it reported the use of earphones, some medics making multiple trips to the bathroom, and the existence of group chats to discuss selling questions. 

Adorni said that some medics from foreign universities placed better in the exam’s ranking than they had in the past. “For example, the University of Manabí [in Ecuador] has nine students among the first 27 in the ranking,” he said. 

“It is striking that this should happen the very year that the national health ministry corrected an injustice that adversely affected medics trained at Argentine universities compared with those who studied abroad. I’m referring to the awarding of five additional points to those who studied at Argentine universities.”

He added that Argentina’s immigration services would check the aspiring residents’ migratory paperwork to establish whether there had been any irregularities obtaining their national identity documents (DNIs) to live in Argentina.

President Javier Milei blamed the problem on DEI initiatives in a post on X on Friday. Argentina does not have DEI initiatives for university entry.

“The situation with the exams that are thought to have been adulterated is part of the mental parasite ‘equity, diversity, and inclusion,’” he wrote, quoting a post with a video of a heated exchange between an Ecuadorian student leader and an Argentine medic. “It’s fun to see how that busts their cheap, tacky nationalism wide open.”

Santiago Quiroz Fernández, rector of the Technical University of Manabí, signed a statement saying that the university “categorically rejects” unethical behavior, stands by ethical principles of academic conduct, and called for a thorough investigation. 

-C5N/Herald