medical schools

Students Guide

Medical SchoolsAt OXFORD UNIVERSITY the number of new preclinical

students continues to be restricted by decree. Duringthe coming academic year 55 men and 10 women willagain be admitted. Students who have done recognisednational service and who were born before Jan. 1, 1929,may be admitted in addition. The selection of candidatesis made by a central university committee from namesput forward by colleges, so that a preliminary acceptanceby a college is essential for any prospective medicalstudent. All new students are required to take thesecond public examination of the university in order toqualify for the B.A. degree. Although almost all medicalstudents continue to take the final honour school ofanimal physiology, a few students take instead the finalhonour school of psychology, philosophy, and physio-logy. This course normally occupies a medical studentfor two years after he has passed the first B.M. examina-tion in anatomy and physiology, and the number of stu-dents who may read for this honour school is limited.A new final honour school of biochemistry has beencreated, which lasts four years, and is not primarilyintended for medical students. A new universitylaboratory of physiology is now being built, and someof the other preclinical departments will be enlarged indue course. The clinical section of the medical schoolcontinues to develop. Despite increases in the numbersof applications for admission it has been decided tolimit the entry to 32 students during the year 1950-51so that a high degree of personal supervision (includingthe tutorial system) and opportunities for practicalexperience may be retained. A limited number of theavailable places are open to students from other uni-versities who elect to do their clinical training in Oxfordand take the degree of their own university. TheRadcliffe Infirmary (520 beds) remains the main teachinghospital, but the other hospitals of the United OxfordHospitals (1250 beds) also provide clinical material.In addition the Wingfield-Morris Orthopaedic Hospitalis available for orthopaedic training. Students are taughtpartly by the whole-time Nuffield professorial units ofmedicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, anws-

thetics, orthopaedic surgery, and plastic surgery, and

partly by the consultant staff of the Radcliffe Infirmary.In this way they are provided with a mixture of academicand vocational training. For example, in general medi-cine all students spend 3 months with a consultingphysician and 3 months with the professor of clinicalmedicine. The Radcliffe Infirmary is an active centre ofclinical research and it is hoped that students will bestimulated by being taught in this environment. Atthe same time the large share in the teaching taken by theconsultant staff ensures that the course is rich in practicalinstruction.

At the UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE the board of medicinehave reorganised the final M.B. examination having inmind the recommendations made in recent years by theGeneral Medical Council. In this task they have hadthe valuable assistance of an advisory committee ofCambridge graduates who hold teaching appointmentsin the London medical schools and who have had experi-ence as examiners in the final M.B. examination. Thenew regulations will come into operation in December ofthis year, with latitude for the taking of the examinationunder the old regulations for all who matriculated beforeOctober, 1946. In future the subjects of pathology,pharmacology, and therapeutics, as basic subjectsnecessary for the proper appreciation of clinical work,will form the first part of the final examination whichmay be taken after two and a half years of clinicalstudy. The main clinical subjects of medicine, surgery,and midwifery and gynaecology will constitute the secondpart of the examination which may be taken after threeyears of clinical study. At a first attempt a candidatewill have no option but to take these three main clinicalsubjects simultaneously, but a pass may be permitted

in one or more subjects provided that a reasonablestandard is attained in the remaining subject or subjects.Papers in medicine will cover the ancillary subjects ofpaediatrics, social medicine, and psychiatry which arementioned in the G.M.C.’s recommendations. The under-graduate in Cambridge has now excellent opportunitiesfor preparing himself for his clinical studies. Havingqualified in anatomy and physiology he may during a longvacation attend courses in elementary psychology and inelementary clinical methods. In the latter he is taught,not advanced medicine, but the fundamental principlesof how to examine a patient presenting himself at thegeneral and special departments of a hospital. Thegeneral practitioner is offered an attractive programmeof " at home " days in each department of Addenbrooke’sHospital on regular days of the month, while one-daysymposia on set subjects have proved popular. The

university department of human ecology, whichacquired its own professor last October, has presenteda course of open lectures covering all fields of socialmedicine, including medicolegal problems and medicalgenetics. The department itself has embarked upon anumber of projects including the incidence and socialbackground of rheumatic disease in East Anglia andthe morbidity among agricultural workers.

LONDON SCHOOLS

LONDON UNIVERSITY bears a different relation to itsmedical faculty from other universities : whereas theyhave one school of medicine each, London has twelveautonomous schools, each of which is closely linked withone of the teaching hospitals, as well as University, King’s,and Queen Mary Colleges, all of which take medicalstudents for some part of the preclinical course. Allthe medical schools are now open to men and womenstudents.

The preclinical course at UNIVERSITY COLLEGE hascontinued with a modest degree of experimentation in theuse of new methods. In particular there has been someintegration of the physiological and anatomical aspectsof neurology in an attempt to provide a single view ofthe subject.

KING’S COLLEGE has in its medical faculty one of thelargest schools for preclinical studies in London. Itsmembers share fully in the social and athletic activitiesof students from all six faculties of the college. Clinicalstudies are pursued at King’s College, St. George’s,or Westminster Hospitals. Arrangements are madeby which patients attend the college for clinicaldemonstrations in applied physiology given by clinicians.Hostel accommodation for a limited number of menis available.

The arrangements made by the joint committeeof QuEEN MARY COLLEGE and the London HospitalMedical College are working efficiently ; and now thatQueen Mary College holds its own special internal firstexamination for medical degrees the teaching sub-committee has organised the instruction in physics,chemistry, and biology to fit in closely with preclinicalteaching. All available places are taken by LondonHospital men and women ; during the 1949-50 session75 first medical and 6 premedical (Conjoint) studentspassed through the departments.

The past year at UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITALMedical School has been a full one in every sense of theword. There has been an unusually large entry ofstudents ; more beds than ever before are available forteaching ; and the school premises have been extended.The new premises will house the professor of dentalsurgery who will join the staff in October, and also anup-to-date prosthetics department for the dental school.A hopeful search continues for new playing-fields toserve the recreational needs of the nursing staff of the,hospital as well as members of the school.

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