Cuba breaks national record with 200,000 medical students

Havana, Oct 9 (DPA) Cuba broke its record for domestic and foreign students studying medical sciences in the communist island country, with a total of 200,000 this year, the Communist Party daily Granma reported citing public health ministry sources.

Close to 23,000 of the students are foreigners, most of them coming from developing countries, Granma said, claiming that this is a result of the Cuban government's 'traditional policy of internationalistic solidarity.'

Cuba holds its free health system as a flagship government programme. At Cuban universities medical sciences include medicine, stomatology (study of mouth and its diseases), nursing, health technology and health psychology.

Cuba has four medical science institutes, 24 schools of medicine, four of stomatology and four devoted to nursing and technology, Granma said. More than 26,000 people teach medical science courses on the island.