"They have not found housing": two students give up on starting Medicine at the UIB

PalmaThe housing crisis is now also affecting the Balearic Islands' ability to retain students who want to study Medicine there. The Dean of the UIB Faculty of Medicine, Antoni Bennàsar, explained that two people have resigned this year from the place they had secured to start the degree: "They could not find housing and have left," he said. Bennàsar made this statement during the assessment of the 2026 MIR results and the ten years of the UIB Faculty of Medicine, at the Son Espases University Hospital. The Dean explained that there have been several resignations from places, although in some cases the reason is that the students have secured a place in their home community. In two cases, however, the cause was directly the difficulty in finding accommodation.

The situation is also perceived by the students and residents themselves. Raquel Romero, a fourth-year Anesthesiology resident and the top student of the first UIB Medicine graduating class, explained that among her peers there were people who doubted whether to stay in the Balearic Islands, or come here due to the housing situation. Romero, a native of Mallorca and currently a resident in the Balearic Islands, assures that her intention is to stay on the island after having obtained a specialized training position. “My idea is to stay here. I am Mallorcan and I got a high score in the MIR and chose my specialty here,” she explained.

Greater retention

The housing problem appears as an added obstacle when it comes to retaining professionals trained in the Balearic Islands, at a time when the faculty also sets as one of its objectives to increase the “loyalty” of graduates. The vice-dean, Príam Villalonga, has explained that more than 17 of the 55 students from the last graduating class have managed to stay within the Balearic public health system. At the same time, he pointed out that a significant portion of the students from the first graduating classes were from the mainland and that many have subsequently returned to their home regions.

The faculty, however, does not have complete data on the career paths of its former students. “We do not know exactly why, since 2021, we are not told where the students go,” noted Bennàsar. With five graduating classes already completed and ten years after the start of the studies, the UIB faces the challenge not only of training doctors in the Balearic Islands, but also of ensuring they can develop their professional careers there.