Dubai: Deserving Emirati medical students will get a monthly allowance to help them pursue their studies, said the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) on Sunday.

A monthly allowance of Dh6,500 for medicine major and Dh5,500 for nursing and paramedic majors is an incentive the DHA will provide to 130 Emirati students selected each year to continue their higher education free of charge.

As part of the programme, DHA will be responsible for covering all the educational fees of the students. This includes the registration fees, monthly allowance insurance and book expenses, to name a few.

The authority said it will also provide suitable placement in government hospitals once students qualify.

The incentives are designed to answer a severe shortage of Emiratis in the field of medicine, said officials.

Dubai has a shortage of Emiratis in the health-care sector, with only one per cent of nationals in nursing, 27 per cent in mainstream medicine and 40 per cent in the paramedical stream.

Releasing an exhaustive criteria list for selection, Humaid Al Qutami, chairman of the board and director-general of DHA, said: “There is a need for experienced Emirati cadres in the medical sector in Dubai to support the growing developments this vital sector is experiencing. By launching this programme we hope to not only elevate this sector further, but also to support the Emiratisation drive in Dubai and continue providing world-class services to the people of Dubai.”

The first set of 130 students will be selected soon and must meet the stringent criteria, including:

•The candidate must be an Emirati who is healthy and has a history of good conduct. The student should have also completed national service (if he is male) or have the necessary documents that prove that he has either been relieved or has been allowed to postpone his national service duties.

• The student must have completed high school and received scores that are equivalent or above the required score of each speciality, the candidate cannot apply for the programme if two years have passed since he received his/her high school degree and the candidate must pass a personality test conducted by the committee.

• According to the approved criteria, Emiratis interested in applying for the programme should not have received any scholarship from another entity during the time of his/her application. The applicant’s degree must be attested by the concerned authority and he/she should not have a permanent or temporary job.

Meanwhile, Emirati high school students will be chosen by a committee based on the criteria and students interested in applying can do so by visiting the authority’s website, www.dha.gov.ae. The application process will begin shortly on the website.

A DHA study found that among the challenges that contribute to the shortage of Emiratis working in the medical field is the length of the medical programmes, which can take up to seven years, followed by six to seven years of practical training.

Therefore, as part of the programme, DHA will encourage students to enter the field not only by covering their education but also by providing them with secure jobs after graduation at the authority’s hospitals and centres.

Al Qutami added the programme not only aims to attract Emiratis to enter the medical sector in fields where they are needed most but also to excel in the field of medicine to better benefit the people of the UAE in the future.