Their National Service Hasstarted and Another Proportion After
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BRITISH 382 SEPT. 6, 1947 UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOLS MEDICAL J OURNAL that service has been completed. At Liverpool, therefore, it is THE UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOLS proposed to choose each year about 60 to 65 of the best appli- cants from the schoolboys seeking admission. Of this number AND PROSPECTS FOR NEW ACADEMIC YEAR PLANS say 30 will be taken into the school forthwith, the remaining Through the kindness of the several deans, who have not places going to men who have already completed their service; objected to filling up yet one form more, we are able to the other 30 or 35 schoolboys of the year will be given a firm present a survey of the position in the medical schools of letter of promise of admission after their national service, Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and Eire at the advent of subject to a satisfactory certificate of conduct while in the a new academic year. On three questions in particular in- Forces. It is thought that this will reassure parents and inevitable formation was sought: first, as to any changes or innovations guardians, and will fit in with a process which is in the curriculum following on the report of the Goodenough for as long as compulsory national service continues. Committee and the more recent recommendations of the General Medical Council concerning changes in the curricu- The Woman Student lum; secondly, the likely effect of compulsory national service These considerations will not apply to women students, door on the student position; and, thirdly, the opening of the unless, of course, the claim of the Medical Womnen's Federa- in all the schools to women students. tion that compulsory national service should be exacted from women on the same basis as for men is conceded. Practically Innovations in the Curriculum all the medical schools now admit women, generally in the proportion of 15 to 25% of the total admissions. Among the All the schools appear to be in process of readapting the London schools St. Bartholomew's admits not less than 15%, curriculum, but such changes cannot be made by a stroke of Charing Cross 20% of the total entry; Guy's, approximately pen. At Edinburgh a complete revision of the whole course the 12 out of 100; St. Mary's, 10 out of 90; University College Ch.B. degree, based on the recommenda- of study for the M.B., Hospital, 14 out of 70; King's College, 25%; the London, tions of the Goodenough Committee and the G.M.C., is being 15%; St. George's, 5 or 6 a year out of an entry limited to and it is hoped to start the new curriculum in undertaken, 30 students; St. Thomas's, 15% ; Westminster, up to 15% At Westminster Hospital Medical School the October, 1948. Middlesex, 12 out of 80. has recently been revised. During the first three curriculum At Oxford the number of women to be admitted during months of the 36-months period for the London M.B., B.S. the academic year 1947-8 is 10 women to 55 men; at Bristol the students attend a set course which includes a larger number women students are admitted to a maximum of 25% of the of lectures than hitherto. During the next twelve months they total; at Liverpool, from 20 to 25% ; at Sheffield, the same; two medical and two general surgical firms, with a attend about one woman to three men; at Leeds certain number of lectures, and during the subsequent fifteen at* Manchester, women students are admitted, " but of necessity in only very attend five special firms, including three months months they limited numbers at present"; at Birmingham about one-third a firm, during which they receive intensive instruc- in paediatric are women. In the Welsh National School tion in children's diseases. Other London schools-the London, of the admissions of Medicine, by the charter of the University, there is no St. Mary's-have instituted a special introductory clinical restriction on the admnission of women students, and Sin prac- course; and yet others-King's College Hospital, St. George's, tice women fill from one-fourth to one-third of the vacancies. introduced instruction in social or St. Bartholomew's-have 25% of the places are occupied industrial medicine. At Edinburgh approximately women. At Glasgow between 30 and 40 women students At Liverpool the curriculum has been modified considerably by are admitted out of a normal entry of 180. At Aberdeen the in accordance with the G.M.C. recommendations; at Sheffield number is 20 out of an expected entry this year of 92. At a new curriculum on the lines of those recommendations will Queen's University, Belfast, women are admitted on an equal come into force in October; at Leeds the staff is being enlarged basis with men, and there is no limit to the percentage of and the curriculum replanned on the same lines; and at Cardiff, women candidates in any one year. At Trinity College School so as it is possible under present conditions, both the far of Dublin, women are admitted on the and the G.M.C. recommendations have been of Physic, University Goodenough as men, but it is added that as almost one-third of adopted. same terms the present students are women the tendency in the future- will new curriculum was introduced at Queen's University A be to limit the number of places to be made available for School, Belfast, a year ago, affecting as yet only pre- Medical women students. medical subjects, to which now one whole academic year is the On the other hand, at what has hitherto been known as the given. As the students who entered in 1946 make progress Free Hospital) School of Medicine for Women, throughout its length. In general London (Royal curriculum is being altered to be called the Royal Free Hospital School has adopted the G.M.C. recommenda- but is in future the Faculty at Belfast of Medicine, revisions to the charter have just been approved and quite extensive parts of the Goodenough report tions, by the Privy Council allowing the admission of men students put into operation over the last two years. A course have been to the school. Such admissions will begin from October, 1947.. in the history of medicine has been introduced. The men have been required to sit for the entrance examina- tion, and both men and women have been accepted on the The Effect of Conscription results. No quota has been fixed, but the majority of students women. On the effect of compulsory national service upon the student are some of the deans offer no opinion, but the majority position London University Undergraduate Schools say that there will be no effect at all, or that the effect will be only of slight extent, giving the school a more mature type of The Schools (some of them postgraduate) of the Faculty of student. It appears to be the general opinion that the students Medicine of the University of London number twenty-one. will elect to take their service in the Forces first, and then go They include the twelve schools each associated with a London on to their studies; this is likely to obtain so long as the teaching hospital, the pre-clinical schools of University College schools continue to give priority to ex-Service candidates; but and King's College, the London School of Hygiene and a number of students may choose to take first their medical Tropical Medicine, the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, course. One dean remarks that a number of parents seem to the Royal Dental Hospital (for dentistry only), the Maudsley be in doubt whether to prefer their sons to do their national Hospital (for research in psychological medicine), the College service as combatants before qualification or to serve in a of the Pharmaceutical Society (for pharmacy only), the Royal medical capacity after qualification. This dean says that he Cancer Hospital, Free (for research in pathology and radiology), has, after some hesitation, come to favour the second alterna- and the British Postgraduate Medical School. There are recog- tive " as the lesser evil." nized teachers of the University on the staff of the National The dean of the Liverpool Medical School foresees a student Institute for Medical Research, Hampstead, and the Royal entry divided in this respect. From now onwards, he says, London Ophthalmic Hospital. a ptoportion of students will enter the medical schools before At Charing Cross Hospital Medical School building opera- their national service has started and another proportion after tions are proceeding apace for full opening in October. The SEPT. 6, 1947 BRITISH UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOLS MEDICAL JOURNAL 383 teaching staff numbers between 30 and 40, and the expected ties for 150, but lack of accommodation at King's College, entry of students-also the limit of entry-is 45. The depart- Strand, where the majority of students take the pre-clinical ments of anatomy and physiology, which have been closed for course, restricts the number entering for the clinical period. a long period, will be reopened at the beginning of the new Although at this school, as at others, 90% of the places are session. The school is in affiliation with the hospitals of the reserved for ex-Service candidates, in practice it has not been Middlesex County Council and with the Royal Dental Hospital possible to fill all these places with suitable ex-Service students. for teaching purposes. Charing Cross Hospital and School are In October the entry will be approximately 60% from school expected to be completely rebuilt at Harrow within the next and 40% ex-Service (this refers, of course,, to students entering ten years.