The exponential rise of Trent’s student population has led to the implementation of a multitude of new programs. Trent now has a competitive professional medical stream as well as a biomedical sciences program. The latter is a capped program that offers the possibility of completing an internship at PRHC or at another medical institution of the student’s choice. Furthermore, Trent publicizes various medical school pathways available to students, such as St. George’s University School of Medicine located in Grenada, the University of Medicine and Health Sciences in St. Kitts (US) as well as the Trinity School of Medicine in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Last but not least, a newly developed opportunity for pre-med students came about in 2021 in coordination with the University of Medicine and Health Sciences (UMHS). Students who are a part of the professional medical stream are now automatically qualified to pursue a master’s degree at UMHS in order to fast track towards the medical school of their choosing. 

Unfortunately, pre-med/biomed/biochem students are expected to succeed in these streams without the proper resources allocated to them. In fact, Trent has restricted access to scientific journal articles which are essential for research and assignment purposes. STEM assignments often require a specific amount of peer reviewed resources and marks will be deducted if these are lacking. Let me ask you, wise reader - how are students supposed to complete their assignments without having the proper resources allocated to them? The answer is relatively simple: they cannot. 

In addition to assignment completion challenges, students who are in stem are not completing their demanding degrees for nothing. Most students will apply to a professional school or post-graduate program because whether we like it or not, we all need at least two degrees to get a job in this receding economy. Examples of these programs include medical, pharmaceutical, dentistry, or even a health specialization in college. These are highly competitive and require broad knowledge about everything from radical organic chemistry reactions to the function of the TATA box. As Trent is not offering the proper resources to its students it is stunting their learning curves and they do not have the time for that BS. In other words, learning the necessary material is much more challenging for Trent students than others who are attending the University of Toronto, McMaster, Western,  etc. These other institutions all have more access to articles than Trent. Take a moment to let that sink in. What do you think the repercussions will be? Trent students are at a disadvantage and will realize this when they compete against students from other universities in Canada; Universities that offer the proper resources to their students which allow them to learn the necessary material. 

Trent University students are at an unfair disadvantage as they cannot access articles from journals such as the World Health Organisation, Science, and Nature.

The lack of medical oriented resources, as well as scientific resources overall, needs to raise more concern amongst our STEM community, especially due to the University’s expansion of pre-med programs. This lack of accessibility to articles puts Trent students at a disadvantage against any other applicant for professional school and impedes the student's overall learning curve. This is unfair. Trent students are paying a lot of money for their education and deserve the right resources to succeed. That is not a lot to ask. There shouldn't be a freaking need to ask. Period.